This message is a foreword to the life-study of the Gospel of John. We need to have an overview of the Bible as a whole. Many times in the past we have stressed that the Bible covers two main matters — Christ and the church. However, considered from another angle, the Bible is a book of life and building. Christ is life, and the church is a building. When we speak of Christ and the church, we must realize that Christ is life and that the church is a building. If you fail to realize that Christ is life and that the church is a building, then when you say these words they will simply be doctrinal terms. What is Christ? Christ is our life (Col. 3:4). What is the church? The church is God’s building.
The Bible is very consistent. If you read it with insight and with the heavenly vision, you will discover that it begins with life and building. We see life and building in Genesis 2. Immediately after the creation of man, life was introduced. After the Lord God created man, He placed him in a garden in front of the tree of life (Gen. 2:7-9). Following this mention of the tree of life, we see the flowing river and three precious materials: gold, bdellium, which is pearl, and onyx, a precious stone. According to the further revelation of the Scriptures, especially Revelation 21, these precious materials are for God’s building. In Genesis 2:22 we find specific mention of the building. “And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, builded he a woman, and brought her unto the man” (Heb.). God took a rib out of Adam’s side and used it to build him a wife. Thus, the man was created, but the woman was builded. In Genesis 2 we see life, the materials that proceed out of the flow of life, and the building of a wife. Therefore, in Genesis 2 we have life and building.
The book of Revelation also speaks of life. Revelation 2:7 says, “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” This certainly is a reference to the tree of life in Genesis 2. Revelation 2:17 says, “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone.” This verse speaks of a stone which, according to the Bible, has no purpose other than that of building. In the last two chapters of Revelation, which are the last two chapters of the Bible, we see the building of the New Jerusalem. In the New Jerusalem the river of life flows and the tree of life grows in the waters of the river (Rev. 22:1-2). Thus, it is clear that the Bible ends as it begins, with life and building.
Between Genesis and Revelation, the two ends of the Bible, there is a wide gap, a broad span. What bridges this gap? The bridge is the Gospel of John. The book of John opens with the words, “In the beginning.” However, if you read this gospel carefully, you will discover that the history recorded in it has no end. Hence, it starts from the beginning in eternity past and it continues indefinitely into the future. Thus, it bridges the span between Genesis and Revelation.
We have seen that the Bible begins and ends with life and building. The Gospel of John, the bridge between the two ends of the Bible, is also a book of life and building. A few words from the first chapter of this gospel will convince us of this fact. “In the beginning was the Word...In Him was life” (1:1, 4). The Gospel of John does not say, “In the beginning was doctrine, and in it was knowledge.” No, it says that in the beginning was the Word, that the Word was God, and that in this One, the Word who was God, was life. Therefore, we find life in the first chapter of John. Furthermore, verse 42 of the same chapter speaks of a stone. When Simon was brought to the Lord by his brother Andrew, He gave him a new name, Cephas, which means a stone. In the same chapter we are told that in the Lord was life and that one of His disciples became a stone. What is the meaning of this? It means that life not only quickens, enlivens, and regenerates, but also transforms. Life will transform the believer into a stone.
The purpose and function of the stone are revealed in 1:51. Speaking to Nathanael, the Lord said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you shall see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” The ancient Jews knew the meaning of this word. It was the fulfillment of Jacob’s dream recorded in Genesis 28:10-22. In that dream Jacob saw a ladder set up on the earth, the top of which reached to heaven and on which the angels of God ascended and descended (Gen. 28:12). Jacob called the name of the place at which he had the dream Bethel (Gen. 28:19), which means “the house of God.” During the night Jacob slept there, he used a stone as his pillow. Early the next morning he awoke and poured oil upon the stone, calling the name of that place Bethel. The Lord Jesus was referring to Jacob’s dream as He spoke to Nathanael. Therefore, in the light of all these verses from John 1, we can see that this gospel is concerned with life and building.
We have seen that Genesis 2:22 speaks of the building of a wife, a bride for Adam. John also mentions the bride. “He who has the bride is the bridegroom” (John 3:29). Who is the bride? According to John 3, all the regenerated ones composed together become the bride.
Moreover, John 14:2 says, “In My Father’s house are many abodes; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.” This verse tells us that the Lord was going to prepare a place of many abodes in the house of the Father. And if we love the Lord, He will come with the Father and make an abode with us (14:23). When we study John 14 we shall see that this denotes the building of God’s eternal habitation, a building which has many abodes. Thus, the Gospel of John is altogether a gospel on life and building. If you want to know the meaning of the Bible, you cannot stay away from the Gospel of John. The key to the whole Bible is in this book.
We have seen that Christ is life and that the church is a building. But what is life? It is correct to say that life is Christ and that Christ is life. However, we must realize that life is Christ as God dispensed into our being. Although many Christians talk about Christ being life, not all have the experience of Christ as life. The genuine experience of Christ as life is in the realization that Christ is God Himself dispensed into our being. This is life. If you lack this realization, the word life may remain a mere term as far as you are concerned. Life is the Triune God dispensed and wrought into our being.
Although I do not drink alcoholic beverages, we may use the illustration of drinking a glass of wine. If I were to drink a tall glass of wine, after a short period of time my complexion would become colorful because of the effect of the wine upon my system. I would be bold, happy, and blissful. That would be the result of wine becoming life to me. However, if I only learn the meaning of the word wine, discussing it night and day and acquiring a great deal of knowledge about it, I would experience nothing. The wine would be unrelated to me. On the contrary, if you forget about discussing the wine and drink a large glass of it each day, you will know what wine is, for it will be dispensed into you, making you happy and ecstatic. Although this example may be poor, it is nevertheless very illustrative.
Do not talk about life without the realization of life. What is the realization of life? It is the living Triune God being wrought into us. The Lord Jesus never told us to talk about life. He said that He is the bread of life and that we have to eat Him (John 6:57). He also told us that He gives the living water and that we must drink it (John 4:10, 14). When you eat the bread, it will be wrought into you, and when you drink the water, it will be dispensed into you. No longer will you only have bread and water; you will have life. You will have Christ as the Triune God dispensed and wrought into your being. Do not put some artificial coloring on your face, but simply drink the heavenly wine and you will have a colorful complexion. Do not pretend to be joyful when inwardly you are filled with sorrow. If you realize that the Triune God has been dispensed into you, you will be happy and your joy will be full. This is life.
What is building? Many of you are familiar with the term building. Numerous times the young people have told me, “O brother, in the brothers’ house we have very little building.” Occasionally I ask them what they mean by this, and they say, “We are all so independent. We lack the building among us.” Thus, I ask you, what does building mean? Perhaps no one reading this message can give an adequate definition. According to your understanding, what does the word building mean? Some may find it easy to give a doctrinal answer, perhaps quoting a phrase from Ephesians or another biblical book, but it is difficult to answer in a practical way.
Building is actually the enlargement of God. Building is the enlargement of God to express God in a corporate way. We have seen that life is God Himself wrought into our being. If the Triune God has truly been wrought into us, the issue will be an enlargement and an expansion of God. As I have mentioned earlier in this message, God did not create a couple; He only created a man. The wife came out of the husband, becoming the enlargement of her husband. That was building. Eve, as the wife of Adam, was God’s building, and that building was the enlargement of Adam. Adam was a figure and type of God becoming a man, and Eve was a figure and type of God’s building. Since this building was a part of Adam, it was undoubtedly his enlargement and expansion.
We need to read the Bible carefully. In Genesis 1 God was alone. At the end of the book of Revelation, God is in the center of the holy city, New Jerusalem, which is His enlargement. In the beginning we find God Himself without any expansion or enlargement. However, throughout the ages and generations God has been working Himself into His chosen people. Eventually we all shall become His building, a building which is the enlargement of God Himself. Hence, this building will become God’s expansion, and this expansion will express God in a corporate way. This is God’s building. Building is not simply that I depend upon you, that you depend upon me, and that the brothers and sisters depend upon one another. That is not an adequate understanding of building. The proper building is the enlargement of God, the expansion of the Triune God, enabling God to express Himself in a corporate way. This is exactly the revelation of the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John reveals that the Triune God is dispensing Himself into His believers and that all His believers, as a result of the transfusion and infusion of the Triune God into them, become His enlargement. This enlargement of the Triune God is the expansion, the building, and the expression of God. This is the revelation of the Gospel of John. Thus, when we speak of the building of God, we mean that the Triune God as life is being wrought into us continually and that under His transfusion and infusion we are becoming His one expression. This expression is His enlargement and expansion. May this thought be written on our heart.
God’s creation was centered on life. This is unfolded in Genesis 1. If you read the life-study messages on Genesis 1, you will see that God’s creation was focused on life.
After creating man God placed him in front of the tree of life, indicating that He wanted man to take Him in as life. This is unveiled in Genesis 2:8-9.
The Old Testament saints enjoyed God as their life. Even the psalmists enjoyed God in this way. Psalm 36:8-9 says, “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.”
In the time of the New Testament, God came in the Person of the Son to be life to man. This is fully revealed in the Gospel of John, especially, as we have seen, in 1:4, and also in 10:10, which says, “I came that they may have life and may have it abundantly.” Eventually, Christ is life to the New Testament believers (Col. 3:4). We all have Christ as our life.
In eternity the tree of life and the river of life will be in the New Jerusalem, indicating that the Triune God will be the life supply to all of His redeemed ones forever (Rev. 22:1-2, 14, 17).
As we have already seen, the flow of the river from Eden brought forth gold, pearl, and onyx, which are materials for God’s building (Gen. 2:10-12).
God used a rib from Adam to build a bride for him (Gen. 2:22), which was a type of the building of the church and ultimately of the New Jerusalem.
God’s intention was for man to be His bride. This bride is symbolized as a city, for in the Bible a city is always visualized as a woman. Hence, a city is a symbol of a corporate wife.
However, before God built His corporate wife on this earth, Satan constructed his first counterfeit, the city of Enoch, named after Cain’s son (Gen. 4:16-24). The city of Enoch was a devilish counterfeit conceived by Satan to frustrate God’s purpose.
The city of Enoch produced a culture that corrupted the whole of mankind, and that corruption brought in the judgment of the flood. Before the flood came, God commanded Noah to build an ark (Gen. 6:11-21). According to 1 Peter 3:20-21, the ark typified Christ. The building of the ark was versus Satan’s counterfeit, the city of Enoch. All of the worldly people of the time were included in the city of Enoch, but Noah stood apart, building an ark for God’s salvation.
After the flood, Noah built an altar and pitched a tent (Gen. 8:20; 9:21). The altar was for the purpose of worshipping God, and the tent was for his living. These two items were Noah’s building. His tent and altar were miniatures of the tent and altar which the children of Israel later built for their worship of God.
Noah’s descendants built the tower and city of Babel (Gen. 11:1-9). The tower was versus Noah’s altar, and the city was versus his tent. This building was Satan’s second counterfeit, a rival of God’s building.
Out of the rebellious descendants of Noah God called Abraham. Over against the tower and the city of Babel, Abraham built an altar and a tent (Gen. 12:7-8; 18:1, 6, 9). Noah’s altar and tent were versus the city of Enoch; Abraham’s were opposed to the tower and city of Babel. At Babel there was a tower, but with Abraham there was an altar; at Babel there was a city, but with Abraham there was a tent. Hence, God’s building with Abraham was versus Satan’s counterfeit building at Babel.
While Abraham lived in the tent, his nephew fell into the city of Sodom which was another counterfeit building of Satan (Gen. 13:12-13; 18:20; 19:1). According to history, Babel was a city of idols, and Sodom was a city of sin.
With Babel and Sodom as the background, God, according to His selection, visited Jacob, “a supplanter.” Jacob knew nothing of God’s selection; he only knew how to be crafty. Nevertheless, God was sovereign, forcing him to leave his parents’ home. While he was wandering, he slept one night in the open air. That night he had a dream in which he saw a ladder set up from the earth to the heavens (Gen. 28:10-22). The angels of God were ascending and descending upon this ladder. When Jacob awoke from his sleep he said, “How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” As we have already pointed out, Bethel means the house of God. Genesis 28:18-19 says that Jacob “took the stone that he had put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel.” Scripturally speaking, a stone symbolizes a transformed person. According to the Bible, the oil symbolizes the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Godhead, reaching human beings. Whenever the Triune God reaches a human being through the Person of the Holy Spirit, that man will become a part of Bethel, the house of God. We all are stones which have been anointed with oil. Thus, we are the Bethel. Although I do not know where Jacob acquired the oil, he nevertheless anointed the stone with it and called it Bethel.
However, Jacob’s descendants did not stay in the promised land, but went down into Egypt where they were forced to build Pharaoh’s treasure cities (Exo. 1:11-14), which were further counterfeits of Satan. Have you noticed the alternation between the positive and the negative, between God’s building and Satan’s counterfeit? This resembles the alternation of night and day. After each night we have a day, and after each day we have a night. After Jacob’s positive dream, we have the building of Pharaoh’s treasure cities, cities of worldly enjoyment.
After the “night” of Pharaoh’s treasure cities, we have the “day” of the building of the tabernacle (Exo. 25:1-9). In the midst of all the cities on the negative side we have the building of God’s tabernacle on the positive side. Jacob’s descendants were rescued from Egypt and brought to Mt. Sinai. After they were released from the bondage of Pharaoh, they became God’s freed people, being made by God’s mercy and grace a “kingdom of priests” (Exo. 19:6). Then God charged them to build a tabernacle as His dwelling place among them on earth, and He showed them the heavenly pattern that they might build it according to God’s plan and design. And they did accordingly. From that time there was a real and practical building of God as His habitation on earth. That tabernacle with the altar was the enlargement of Noah’s and Abraham’s tents and altars. It was not only God’s dwelling place, but also a place for God’s priests to stay with God. It was not only a full type of Christ, but also a prefigure of the church as the enlargement of Christ. All the utensils within it were types of the different aspects of Christ as the content of the church. It fulfilled God’s plan in the way of type, expressed the heart’s desire of God, and satisfied Him. Thus, after it was builded and erected, God’s glory filled it (Exo. 40:17, 34).
After the tabernacle was built, it was carried through the wilderness and was brought into God’s promised land, remaining there as God’s habitation on earth until the temple was built (1 Kings 6:1-10). Its history lasted for about five hundred years, from approximately 1500 to approximately 1000 B.C., and is recorded from Exodus to 1 Kings. The temple was bigger and more solid than the tabernacle, but its purpose and function were the same. It was the type of both Christ and the church in a full way. With the building of the temple, Jacob’s dream, at least to some extent, was fulfilled. There was, on earth, a house of God built with stones on a solid foundation. It was much more solid in form than was the tabernacle. Its history lasted for about four hundred years, from about 1000 B.C. until it was destroyed by the Babylonians in approximately 600 B.C., and is recorded from 1 Kings to Ezra.
In opposition to the temple with its city, Jerusalem, Satan built the city of Babylon (Dan. 4:28-30), which was a bigger counterfeit. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, with his army destroyed the temple of God and brought its utensils to Babylon, putting them in his temple of idols (2 Chron. 36:7, 18-19). By this we can see how Satan has been constantly frustrating and damaging God’s building as His habitation on earth.
Seventy years after the destruction of the temple some of the Jewish people returned from their captivity and rebuilt the temple (Ezra 1:2-5). The rebuilding of the temple was the recovery of God’s building. Following the rebuilding of the temple came the rebuilding of Jerusalem (Neh. 2:17-18). This remained until the Lord Jesus came.
In Matthew 16:18 the Lord prophesied that He would build the church, which is the fulfillment of both the tabernacle and the temple as God’s habitation on earth. After the Lord had accomplished redemption, had resurrected from the dead, and had ascended to the heavens to send down the Spirit, the building of the church began. This building has lasted over nineteen centuries and will last until the Lord’s second coming.
In order to accomplish the building of the church the Lord builded the local churches (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5). The building of the church is actually realized by the building of the local churches. The building of the local churches is practical. Although the church is universally one, the local churches, as the expressions of the one universal church, are many. The building of the universal church began in the building of the local churches. It has been proceeding and will continue to proceed in this way until its completion.
In order to oppose and frustrate God’s building of the church Satan builded, both in a religious and a political way, the great Babylon (Rev. 17:5; 18:2, 21), which is his ultimate counterfeit. Religious Babylon is exposed in Revelation 17, and political Babylon in Revelation 18. These two sides of Babylon are the greatest, the consummate, and the ultimate counterfeit of Satan in frustrating God’s building. It is versus God’s ultimate building, the New Jerusalem.
God’s building, mainly, the building of the church, will consummate in the New Jerusalem, which is His ultimate building (Heb. 11:10, 16; 12:22; Rev. 21:2, 10—22:2). Satan’s building will consummate in the great Babylon; God’s building will consummate in the New Jerusalem, which will ultimately fulfill God’s eternal purpose, express God, and fully satisfy Him for eternity.
Thus, we have before us a brief sketch of the whole Bible showing the two lines of life and building.
John’s ministry was a mending ministry. When Peter was called by the Lord, he was fishing, but when John was called, he was mending the net (Matt. 4:21). Peter did a great deal of fishing, bringing in a multitude of people. However, John mended the spiritual net, for his ministry of mending was a mending ministry of life. Only life can mend, covering all the holes in the spiritual net. How much this is needed today! There are so many holes in the Christian net. What can mend them? Nothing but life. This is the reason that we have been burdened over and over again with this matter of life. Some people laugh at us, saying, “Don’t you know anything except the one word life?” Yes, in a sense, we only know life, nothing else. We do not know anything else because we do not need anything else. Life is our only need. Brothers and sisters, you need life. Other things may enlarge the holes; life will close every gap. We need John’s ministry. John’s ministry, the last ministry in the Bible and the ministry with which the Bible concludes, was a mending ministry of life.
All of John’s writings are the final words of the divine revelation in the Scriptures. The final word is always the decisive word. Although many words may be spoken, the decision depends upon the final word. John’s gospel is the last of the four gospels, his epistles are among the last ones of the epistles, and his revelation is the last book of both the New Testament and of the entire Bible. Thus, his writings are the final word of the divine revelation.
We have seen that the Bible is a book of life and building and that the Gospel of John is also focused on life and building.
The Gospel of John reveals that in Christ, the Word of God, is life (1:4); that He came that man may have life (10:10b); and that He Himself is life (11:25; 14:6). Furthermore, this gospel shows us that Christ is the bread of life (6:35); that He has the water of life (4:14); that He gives life to man (5:21); and that He even lives in man as life (14:19).
The Gospel of John unfolds the building. In 1:14 we see that Christ in the flesh was the tabernacle for God’s habitation among men on earth. “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” Also, Christ’s body was the temple before His death and after His resurrection (2:19-22). Before His death His body in the flesh was the temple, and after His resurrection His resurrected body remained the temple of God. This is the building. Furthermore, this gospel reveals that the believers are to be built as the abode of the Triune God (14:2, 23). This is adequately and fully disclosed in John 14. According to that chapter, all the believers will be built together as God’s eternal habitation with so many abodes. Thus, as the Lord’s last prayer found in John 17 indicates, all His believers must be built up into one (vv. 11, 21-23).
The first section of the Gospel of John, composed of the first thirteen chapters, is on the coming of the Lord Jesus to bring God into man and to declare God to man. This section tells how the Lord was the Word of God, which was God Himself, coming through His incarnation to bring God into man and to declare God to man. Before the time of His incarnation, He was separate from man. God was God, and man was man. However, through His incarnation He brought God into man. God became one with a man named Jesus, a man who was both God and man. Although no one has ever seen God, through incarnation the only begotten Son of God has declared God to man in life, light, grace, and reality. We shall see more of this in the following messages. For the time being it is sufficient to remember that in the first section of John we see how God was brought into man and declared to man.
The second section, composed of the last eight chapters, is on the Lord’s going in death and coming back in resurrection to bring man into God and to abide in and with man for God’s building. In the first section He brought God into man; in the second section He passed through death and resurrection to bring man into God. Thus, He is able to enter into man and to abide in and with man for God’s building.
Although the language of the Gospel of John is simple and brief, this book is deep and profound. The language is so elementary that even a first grader can read most of it. “In the beginning was the Word”; “I am the light”; “I am the life” — such statements are simple, but their meaning is profound. What does “the Word” mean? Try to define it. What does it mean to say that “in Him was life”? Who can say what life is? It is profound, far beyond our understanding. Hence, this gospel, in its brief and simple style, uses many allegories and figures. In John 1 we have the Word. We know that this Word was Christ. However, do not think that Christ was a word with four letters; the Word here is an allegory, a figure, depicting what Christ means for God. In 1:14 we have the tabernacle, which also was Christ. Furthermore, in 1:29 Christ is called the Lamb of God, although He was not actually a lamb with four feet. We have seen that Christ called Peter a stone (1:42), but this “stone” has a spiritual significance. Therefore, we should not try to understand the Gospel of John merely according to letters; we need to allegorize it in a proper way according to the revelation of the entire Bible.
Nearly every chapter of John’s gospel contains some figures. In chapter one we have the Word, the light, the tabernacle, the lamb, the stone, and the heavenly ladder; in chapter two the six waterpots, the wine, the temple, and the Father’s house; in chapter three the serpent on a pole; in chapter four Jacob’s well and the living water; in chapter six the living bread; in chapter seven the rivers of living water; in chapter nine the spittle and the clay; in chapter ten the door, the fold, the flock, the pasture, and the shepherd; in chapter twelve the grain of wheat; in chapter thirteen the foot-washing; in chapter fifteen the vine and the branches; in chapter sixteen the woman and the child; in chapter nineteen the bone, the blood, and the water; in chapter twenty the breath; and in chapter twenty-one the sheep and the lambs. We cannot understand this gospel properly without allegorizing all of its figures.
Because the matters of life are abstract, deep, and profound, it is extremely difficult to describe and express them with ordinary human language. Hence, this gospel uses various figures to signify spiritual things, the exceedingly profound matters of life and building. Thus, we need to read the Gospel of John carefully, praying to receive a genuine understanding of the allegories. To help you in this, we suggest that you read the Recovery Version of John, paying close attention to all the notes. If you read the text and the notes, you will be helped.
