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Scripture Reading: Matt. 2:19-23; 3:15; 4:1, 3-4, 12-16; 11:19, 25-30; 12:6, 8, 19-20, 41b, 42b; 13:55-57; 16:18; 18:17; 21:42; 28:19
The Scriptures are a record of a wonderful person. I believe that in the past three chapters, we have seen what a wonderful person the Lord Jesus is. This wonderful person is for the producing of the church, and eventually He becomes the Head of this entity. He is the Head, and the church is the Body. This is what is called in the New Testament the new man. This new man is the Body of Christ. Before producing the church, He was the individual Christ, but after producing the church, this wonderful person becomes the Body-Christ.
Christians have seen that the Lord Jesus was incarnated to be a man, and they have seen that He died on the cross for our sins, was buried, resurrected, and is now in the third heaven at the right hand of God. Moreover, they believe that He is coming again. All these things are true, but they are very elementary.
For example, on the outside of a man, we see his nose, his ears, his eyes, and his mouth. We see his two shoulders, his arms, and his hands. It is easy to speak about all these things, but this is not the real person. This is just the framework, the superficial exterior and structure of his being. His real person is something else. To see his exterior framework is easy, but it is not so easy to know what is inside of him.
In the same way, we should not think that it is easy to know the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew that only the Father knows the Son: “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one fully knows the Son except the Father; neither does anyone fully know the Father except the Son and him to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (11:27). Only the Father knows the Son, and only the Son knows the Father. It is not easy to know Jesus in a deep way.
What is really in Jesus? This is a vast, deep, unsearchable, immeasurable, and unlimited ocean, but we do have some terms in the Bible. In the one book of the Gospel of Matthew, there are many terms regarding Christ. However, I am afraid that most Christians read this Gospel with colored glasses. They read it according to the traditional knowledge that they have received from the past. Not many have seen that Jesus is the greater Solomon, the greater Jonah, and even the greater temple.
In the Gospel of Matthew, there are many names attributed to Christ. Of course, the first is Emmanuel, God with us. We have seen something about this in the previous chapters. Moreover, He is not only the son of David and the son of Abraham; He is also called the carpenter’s son: “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” (13:55). He is also called the greater temple (12:6), the greater Jonah (v. 41), and the greater Solomon (v. 42), the Lord of the Sabbath (v. 8), the great light (4:16), and the stone rejected by the builders (21:42).
He was also ascribed with some bad names. Did you know that Jesus was called a gluttonous man and a drunkard? He was also called the friend of sinners. We like to hear this now, but it was not good in those days. “The Son of Man came eating and drinking; and they say, Behold a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (11:19). Jesus had all kinds of poor names. He would eat anywhere with anyone, especially with tax collectors and sinners. He did this because His sole purpose was to dispense Himself into man. Regardless of whether they were a sinner, a tax collector, or a Pharisee, He did whatever He could to impart Himself to them. He was not for eating. His eating gave Him the opportunity to impart Himself into a tax collector by the name of Matthew. It seems that Matthew invited Jesus to come and eat with him, and He went. The Pharisees condemned Him for it, but Jesus did not care. By His eating, Matthew was fully caught, and in time one of the foremost tax collectors became one of the foremost disciples.
Jesus was not legal or religious. He was very flexible. As long as He could dispense Himself into someone, He did not care what He had to do. If it was eating, He would eat. Whatever Jesus was, and whatever He was called was only for the purpose of dispensing Himself in God’s chosen people, that they might be converted and transformed into His Body, the church. His only purpose was to produce the church.
Eventually in the Gospel of Matthew, He said, “I will build My church.” “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (16:18). What is the way to build the church? It is by Jesus getting into you and me. To build the church is not simply to bring people to the Lord, that they may obtain some kind of church membership. No, to build the church is to dispense Christ into people. Then, once Christ is in us, He will transform us from our natural being into something else. Old things will pass away, and all things will become new. We are transformed from our old being into something new. Then we are part of the new man, the church. Whatever Jesus did and whatever He was called were for the purpose of dispensing Himself into a group of people so that they might be transformed from their old natural being into something new to be the church.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is wonderful. He is the son of David, a king, and He is the son of Abraham, the first generation of the Hebrew race. He is also Emmanuel, God with us, and He is Jesus, Jehovah the Savior. In chapter 1 He is the son of David, the son of Abraham, Jesus, Emmanuel, and Jehovah the Savior.
But in chapter 2 we immediately see the negligence of religion and the persecution from politics toward this wonderful person. Religion did not pay attention, but politics came in to persecute. Jesus is such a wonderful person for the producing of the church, but if we really mean business with the Lord for His purpose, our destiny today will be the same. If He has come into us and we are one with Him, our experience will be the same as His.
The influence of religion and the power of politics constitute almost the whole of human society. If we mean business with the Lord for Him and for His church, religion will neglect us, and politics will persecute us, just as they did to the Nazarene. Then we will become Nazarenes. This is what happened to Jesus, even as a young child: “Because [Joseph] heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there; and having been divinely instructed in a dream, he departed into the regions of Galilee. And he came and settled in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, He shall be called a Nazarene” (vv. 22-23).
To be a Nazarene is to be a person under the negligence of religion and the persecution of politics. The religious will say that we are very little, and the political people will say that we are nothing. Praise the Lord! We are nothing, and we are nobody. This is what it means to be a Nazarene. The Nazarene life is for the church. The church is produced by a man who is called a Nazarene.
This wonderful person is despised, opposed, and persecuted by man, but He is perfect in the eyes of God. In everything related to God, He is right. “Jesus answered and said to him, Permit it for now, for it is fitting for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness. Then he permitted Him” (3:15). Righteousness is simply to be right with God. Suppose you park your car in a no-parking zone. That is unrighteousness. We should realize that we have Jesus as our life, and Jesus is righteous in everything. If there is no righteousness, there is no church life. Suppose you give a dollar for a forty-five-cent hamburger, and you are given three quarters in change. What shall you do? You may consider that you got a cheap hamburger. You may gain twenty cents, but if so, you lose Jesus’ life. Jesus is right in everything. If you are taking Him as your life, you will return the twenty cents. “It is fitting for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”
Perhaps you are working in an office. Many office workers take the company’s paper, pencils, and erasers home for their own use. Of course, you may say that this means nothing. But if it means nothing, why not buy some paper, pencils, and erasers and bring them to the office for the company to use? You would never do that. Jesus would never take anything away from the office. He is right in everything. It is fitting for Him to fulfill all righteousness.
In Matthew 4 Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. “When He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, If You are the Son of God, speak that these stones may become loaves of bread. But He answered and said, It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God’” (vv. 2-4). The tempter talked with Jesus when He was hungry. But Jesus answered that man lives not on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God. If we mean business to have the church life, we will be hungry all the time. Hence, we must learn to feed on the word of God. Jesus’ life is a life that is always feeding on God’s word. Only this life is the proper life for the church life. Jesus as a man on this earth was a good eater of God’s word, and today the Jesus within us is the same. If you say that Jesus is within you, yet you do not daily eat the word of God, that is not Jesus; that is you. Jesus lived by feeding on the word of God.
Then Jesus came as a great light. “The people sitting in darkness have seen a great light; and to those sitting in the region and shadow of death, to them light has risen” (v. 16). If we would be a Nazarene, neglected by religion and persecuted by politics, fulfilling all righteousness by taking Jesus as our life and daily feeding on the living word of God, we will become a light. Wherever we go, people will be under our shining. Men may be in darkness, but our presence will bring the light. People will simply see the light. Sometimes, without us, our family may be in darkness. But since we take Jesus as the Nazarene and as our life within, and we are willing to suffer persecution and be right in everything by feeding on the word of God, our family will be full of light.
Jesus is also the greater temple. “I say to you that something greater than the temple is here” (12:6). He is the greater temple and the greater Jonah. “Ninevite men will stand up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something more than Jonah is here” (v. 41). And He is the greater Solomon: “The queen of the south will rise up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something more than Solomon is here” (v. 42).
Jesus is the greater temple with the presence of God, the greater Jonah with the power of God, and the greater Solomon with the wisdom of God. If we are those who take Jesus as our life, we will be the temple with the presence of God. Wherever we are, others will sense that God’s dwelling is with us. They will also sense the power of God and the wisdom of God with us. I believe that many of us have had this kind of experience. We may be the youngest in the family, yet the whole family senses that we are so powerful, so wise, and so much in God’s presence. This is because the greater temple, the greater Jonah, and the greater Solomon is within us. This should be the life of the people in the church. They must have the greater temple, the greater Jonah, and the greater Solomon. Others may not like it, but they cannot deny it. They must admit that the presence of God, the power of God, and the wisdom of God are with us.
I know of a brother who worked in a telegraph company. All those working there called him Jesus in a despising way. But one day they needed someone to care for a large sum of their money. They all agreed that they should entrust their money to the one they called Jesus. They realized that he was the most trustworthy person in the whole company. This is the way the church people should be in the world. We should have the wisdom and the power with the presence of God.
We do have such a wonderful person living in us! He is the greater temple, the greater Jonah, and the greater Solomon. But regardless of how wonderful the One who indwells us is, religion will never change, and politics will never agree. When Jesus came to His own country, all the religious ones were offended. “He came into His own country and taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astounded and said, Where did this man get this wisdom and these works of power? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things? And they were stumbled because of Him” (13:54-57).
Furthermore, in Matthew 14 Herod had John the Baptist killed. Because of this, Jesus realized that He must leave. “When Jesus heard this, He withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place privately. And when the crowds heard of it, they followed Him on foot from the cities” (v. 13).
Religion and politics will never take the proper Christ, and they will never accept the proper church. This is the destiny of Jesus, and this is also the destiny of today’s church. The church way is not a way that is welcomed by religion and politics. Rather, the church way will always be neglected by religion, even by today’s Christianity, and the church way will be persecuted and troubled by politics. But this will not stop the Lord. The Lord is going to build His church, and the gates of Hades can never prevail against it. “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (16:18).
Today many people talk about Christ building the church. But if we would know the way Christ builds His church, we must realize all the things that have been mentioned in this chapter. If we would let Him build His church, we must learn to take such a wonderful person as our life. We all have been put into such a wonderful person, and now He has come into us in order that we may live by Him. Only in this way will we have the life that is qualified for the building of the church.
Nearly all Christians today are not qualified for the building of the church. They are qualified for other things, such as certain Christianity movements, free groups, organizations, and denominations but not for the proper church life. The proper church life is built with those who take Christ as their life. They live in the life of Christ, and they walk by the life of Christ. To have the church life, we need to be qualified with this wonderful person. In other words, we must be the real Nazarenes, the real fulfillers of righteousness, and the real feeders on God’s word. We must also be a light shining over the people where we are, and have the greater temple, the greater Jonah, and the greater Solomon. This is the very life that qualifies us for the church life.
When Jesus said that He would build His church, He did not say it in the second or third chapter of Matthew, but in the sixteenth chapter. It was after He became the Nazarene, the fulfiller of righteousness, the One who daily feeds on the word of God, the great light, the greater temple, the greater Jonah, and the greater Solomon. After He had been revealed in such a way, He said that He would build His church. May the Lord open our eyes that we may see the reality in the Lord’s recovery. It is not a new way to meet together. It is the reality of taking Christ as such a wonderful person.
Matthew 18 also tells us something about the church. In this chapter we read that if we have some problem, we must go and tell the church. “If he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to hear the church also, let him be to you just like the Gentile and the tax collector” (v. 17). This is the proper church life. There must be a place where we can “go and tell.” Many people talk about the universal church in Matthew 16, but they miss the words of Jesus in Matthew 18. This is not the universal church. This is the local church in a practical place to which you can go and tell your problems. Praise the Lord! There is a place where we can “tell it to the church.” So we see that eventually Matthew becomes a book of the church.
In Matthew 21 we see that Jesus was rejected not as the Savior or Redeemer but as the building stone: “Jesus said to them, Have you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, this has become the head of the corner. This was from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” (v. 42). Many Christians think that Jesus was rejected by the Jewish people as the Savior and Redeemer. But Jesus said that He was rejected not as the Redeemer but as the cornerstone for God’s building. His main purpose was not merely to be the Redeemer but to be the cornerstone for building up God’s house. The whole book of Matthew is for this purpose. He said that He would build His church, but the religious ones rejected Him as the cornerstone for God’s building. Therefore, they could never be a part of the building of God, for they rejected the cornerstone.
But, Hallelujah, we accept Him! We not only accept Him as the Savior and Redeemer but also as the cornerstone. This is why the Lord told His disciples to go to the Gentiles and baptize them into His name: “Go therefore and disciple all the nations [Gentiles], baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (28:19). (In Greek, the word for nations and the word for Gentiles is the same.) The Jewish religious ones rejected Him, so He told His disciples to take Him to the Gentiles. They would receive Him. By being discipled and baptized into the Triune God, they would become a part of the church, learning to take Christ as their life and thus being qualified for the building up of the church. All this has been missed by most Christians, but the Lord is recovering all these things.
Praise the Lord that we have such a wonderful person in us! By taking Him as our life, He will fully qualify us for God’s building, because everything He is, is for the producing of the church.
