Before we really begin, I think we would like to say a few words to clarify this time.
We are doing it differently this year from past years. We call it a training session. As a matter of fact, we have been doing that sometimes in the past, but usually for a weekend, with fewer people either invited or specially chosen.
But we are thinking that, at this family conference, seeing so many brothers and sisters from various localities are here, it will probably be a good time to utilize the afternoon to do something that we have been doing in a smaller way. That is the reason why this year we changed the afternoon into what we call a training session.
Now, first of all, I would like to clarify this: only our Lord Jesus can train us. The Holy Spirit is the only Trainer. We are all trainees. I am not qualified to train anybody; I am still under training.
So, as we are here these afternoons, do not look at me, but look at the Lord Jesus. Together, we look to Him that He may train us, to make us what He wants us to be, that we may be of service and usefulness to Him.
In such training sessions, we usually focus upon some specific areas or subjects. This time, we feel led to focus our attention on the matter of ministry and government in local assemblies, or local churches.
Now, you know that, in order that we may receive the best benefit, we feel that we should lay down some prerequisites, or conditions. If you have received the brochure sent to you months ago, you will find that there are certain requirements for attending this session.
We were to read 2 Corinthians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus five times each. We were also to study or read two books. One is Rethinking the Work, or The Normal Christian Church Life, or Concerning Our Mission—there are different names for the same book—and also The Ministry of God’s Word.
We feel that such requirements are not very demanding. As a matter of fact, in a training session there should be very strict conditions. I remember some sisters once asked Brother Watchman Nee to study the book of Revelation with them. Our brother said, “Read the book of Revelation one hundred times, and then you can come and we will study.” And they did read it one hundred times.
So, when we were considering how many times we should study, probably one hundred times would be too demanding for us. Actually, it is not. If you read 2 Corinthians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus, how long will it really take you to finish them?
Suppose we say it takes you three hours to study them once. Five times is only fifteen hours. With several months ahead, it should not be too demanding.
But I am afraid many have not fulfilled these conditions. So I am really struggling with this matter. I do not know what to do. I asked several brothers, “What should I do?”
It is a training session. It should be very strict, very disciplined, and then you will get the best result. If you make it too loose, too easy, actually you lose a lot. But since this is a family conference, and you dear brothers and sisters are here, we cannot keep you away if you have not fulfilled these conditions.
So we are struggling with this matter, and what we have come up with is this: we hope you have fulfilled these conditions. I do not like you to raise your hands to show me whether you have fulfilled them or not. It may be embarrassing to some people. I know some people have fulfilled some, but not all; and some people may not even know the conditions. They have not read the brochure.
So all we can do is this: if you really have a heart—and that is more important—if you really have a heart for the Lord’s interest and a heart for His church, then who are we to say that you cannot come? Maybe the Lord will speak to you and help you.
But I have to say that those who are prepared are already blessed. Some have already approached me and told me that, in reading each book five times—even only five times—the Lord had opened their understanding.
And the books—people read them just one time and found great help. I feel that probably you were helped more by reading these books five times, and the other two books twice, than by these four sessions. I do believe that.
So I feel that those who are prepared should not feel that they are cheated, because you are already blessed. And those who have not prepared, actually you have lost a lot, and you need to look to the Lord to fill in what has been lost.
So I think these are the words I have to say before we begin. Now let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, we gather together here in the name of Thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus. We do trust that Thy presence is here with us.
So our cry to Thee this afternoon is, “Master, speak; Thy servants hear.” Thou anoint us. We ask Thee to search our hearts, to cleanse us from all impurities, prejudices, and preconceived ideas.
We pray that we may come to Thee as little children. May we not only be able to hear, but to obey. We do commit this time into Thy hands and look to Thy Holy Spirit for help. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
In these afternoons, we will focus our attention on the government and ministry of local assemblies.
Now immediately you find that we are actually dealing not just with spiritual principles, but with the practice of spiritual truth. We like to talk about spiritual principles because these spiritual principles really lift us up to the third heaven, and we enjoy it.
But naturally, we do not like to talk about practice, because when you talk about practice, it seems that we are pulled down to earth and have to face problems and realities. That is the reason why everybody likes the letter to the Ephesians, and nobody really likes Corinthians.
But thank God that our God is not only spiritual; His spirituality is practical. So He gave us not only Ephesians; He also gave us Corinthians. Our time together here is more on the Corinthian side than on the Ephesian side. We leave our three brothers to supply us with the Ephesian side.
So do not forget what the three brothers are sharing with us, because this session will not be effective if we forget it.
We know the church is one. There is one church: the church universal. Even though the term universal is not in Scripture, it describes it very correctly. There is one church in the universe; it is the church universal.
Everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus, who is born again, who is redeemed by the precious blood, who belongs to the Lord—he is in that church; she is in that church. From the first one who trusted the Lord in the first century to the last one who will believe in the Lord at His coming, all are in this one universal church.
It spans over two thousand years and covers every corner of this earth. This is the church of God. This is the church to which you and I belong.
You remember our Lord Jesus. In Matthew 16:18, He says:
Upon this rock I will build My church;
and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Upon this rock—that is, Himself. He is the Rock. He said, “I will build My church.” This is the church universal, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
But at the same time, you find in Matthew 18:20 that the Lord says:
Where two or three are gathered together unto My name,
there am I in the midst of them.
Where there is locality, two or three in a locality gather together, assemble together, unto the name of the Lord Jesus. That is, where two or three put themselves under the authority of Christ. The Lord said, “I am there. I am in their midst.” This is the church.
And this church is the church local. Again, we do not have the word local in Scripture, but it describes it.
The Lord said, “If your brother sin against you.” Now, most likely the brother who sins against you is with you. If he is thousands of miles away, I think it will be very difficult for him to sin against you. That is the reason why we love our brothers thousands of miles away.
If two or three, or more, live in the same locality, they know each other. They rub against each other. They meet together. They serve the Lord together. There are plenty of opportunities for one to sin against the other, because we are still in the flesh.
So here you find it cannot refer strictly to the church universal. It does refer to the church local, because where you are, you rub against each other, you step on each other, and you sin against each other.
Now, if your brother sins against you, what will you do? According to the law, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But that is the law. You are not under the law; you are under grace.
How will you react under grace when your brother or sister sins against you? You say, “Unfortunately, we are brothers and sisters. We are all believers, and I have to forgive you because that is the command of the Lord. I have to forgive you from my heart. If I do not forgive you from my heart, the Lord knows my heart, and He will hold me to it.”
So you say, “Okay, I will forgive you.” But is that all? Is that grace? Not enough. The Lord said, if your brother sins against you and you have really forgiven him, then you think of your brother; you do not think of yourself.
He may sin against you without really knowing it. Or sometimes he may know it; sometimes you may not know it. You find that because of this, he will suffer before the Lord. You love your brother; you do not want him to suffer. So the Bible says you go and tell him what he has done—not in the sense of trying to put him down or to vindicate yourself, but trying to restore your brother in love.
If your brother does not listen to you, your duty is not finished yet, because your love for your brother is such that you have to find another brother or two whom that brother will respect, and go to him again and try to restore him.
Now, if he still does not listen, then what do you do? The Bible says, “Tell the church.” Now, you cannot tell the church universal, because it is too big. It is so big that you cannot touch it.
So evidently, when it says, “Tell the church,” it must be the church local. It must be the church where you are, where your brothers and sisters are gathering together. So you find that there is the local church.
In the local church, you have many problems. Problems will come up, and thank God problems will be solved. By solving these problems, the life of the church grows; the church grows.
But do not think that because there is the church universal and there is the church local, therefore there are two churches. No. There is only one church. The church local is the local expression, or manifestation, of the church universal.
Why? It is for practical reasons. We are still in the flesh. One day, when we put on a resurrection body, a spiritual body, then the local church disappears. But today we are still in this mortal body, and being in this flesh, we are limited by time and by space.
By time, if we live today, we do not live in the first century. By space, if you are now in Richmond, you are no longer in Sydney, Australia. We are limited because we are still in this mortal body.
Because of this practical reason, you have to gather together with those who are with you at the same time and in the same place. Otherwise, how are you going to meet with them?
The local church is to put the spiritual principles of the universal church into practice. The local church is not another church from the universal church, as if the universal church is concerned only with spiritual principles, somewhere in heaven, and never comes down upon this earth. Some people would like it that way.
And the local church is not an entirely different thing: God’s people coming together, organized into a kind of religious club. You do not put any spiritual principle into practice, but practice what you think is right.
Dear brothers and sisters, you find there is only one church. The universal church gives us the spiritual principles, but the local church puts these principles into practice. The universal church is the ultimate; the local church is the process.
When you read the book of Acts, in the building of the church, how does God build the universal church? He does it by building the local church. In the book of Acts, you find from the beginning to the end that it starts with the building up of the church in Jerusalem and ends with the church in Rome.
It is by the building of the local church that the universal church is built. Otherwise, the church is never built.
You read the book of Revelation. In Revelation 2:1-29 and Revelation 3:1-22, you have the seven churches in Asia, the seven golden lampstands, as instruments for the testimony of Jesus in seven different localities in Asia.
The risen Lord, as the High Priest and as the Lord over His house, is walking among the seven golden lampstands, examining them, cleaning them, supplying them, and building them up.
But when you come to Revelation 21:1-27 and Revelation 22:1-21, you find the holy city, the New Jerusalem. The holy city, Jerusalem, if you can picture it, is a giant lampstand. The foundation is the base of that lampstand, the wall is built upon that base, and at the top you find the throne of God and of the Lamb. It is a giant lampstand.
How does this New Jerusalem come into being? How is it built? When is it built? Where is it built? You find that it is by building the seven churches in Asia, and by building all the local churches throughout the centuries.
At the very end, you find the universal church appearing. Then you do not find the local church anymore, because the work is done.
What is the work of God? Our Lord Jesus said, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” What is the work of the Father? What is the work that our Lord Jesus did while He was on earth? What is the work that the Holy Spirit is doing today?
God has one work, and that one work is building the church, because the church is the body of Christ and will be the bride of the Lamb. God loves His Son. He said it is not good for Him to be alone. He wants to give Him a helpmeet, a counterpart.
That is the work of the Father. That is the work of the Son. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. He is preparing the bride for His beloved Son.
Brothers and sisters, someone asked me this question during the past two conferences. We talked about the King is coming. We talked about the kingdom of God. Someone asked me, “Why is it that this time you talk about the local church, and the ministry and government of the local church? You have dropped down from the third heaven. It is a letdown.”
Now, brothers and sisters, how can the kingdom come? How can the King return if the bride is not ready? It is the church that is holding back His return, because the church has not been built and the bride has not made herself ready.
So, dear brothers and sisters, we cannot be too spiritual and not practical. We have to get into the practical side in order to see the spiritual side fulfilled.
I really hesitate a lot because we are touching on some technical things, perhaps practical matters. Sometimes you may feel, “Are we touching the earth too much? Are we letting these things take away the heavenly?” Brothers and sisters, this is a legitimate fear. When you touch the earth, it may affect the heavenly.
But we hope not. All the while, I am hoping that even though we are talking more about the government and ministry of the local assembly, brothers and sisters will remember what the three brothers are sharing with us. Do not separate them completely, because only within that context are we able to deal rightly with these practical matters.
Keep all these spiritual principles in mind, because when we are dealing with these practical matters, it is but the application of spiritual principles. If it is not of life, then it is nothing. Everything has to be in life.
So these are the preliminaries I feel I have to share with you, brothers and sisters. We need to have the right perspective when we are dealing with these matters.
The reason why we want to deal with these two aspects of the local assemblies—government and ministry—is because, on the one hand, we feel that these two things are very essential to the building up of local assemblies. On the other hand, through our observation, we find that these are two things that are not only lacking today in local assemblies, but are very much confused.
So we do look to the Lord that, in these times we are together, we may learn from Him and from His Word what local government is and what local ministry is. We hope the Lord will strengthen the local assemblies and build His people together.
We have four sessions. The first two sessions will be devoted to government in local assemblies, and the last two sessions to ministry in local assemblies. God willing, the fifth session will be questions and answers.
If you have any questions after we have had the four sessions concerning what we have shared, hopefully we will have a time together with questions and answers to clarify more. So this is what we will be doing this time.
Now, we do acknowledge that there are many essential things in the building of the local assembly. For instance, if we want the local church to be built, then the spiritual stature of our brothers and sisters must grow. In other words, individual spiritual growth is very essential.
If we do not grow spiritually—that is, in spiritual life, knowing the Lord and experiencing Him—then you really cannot talk about the building of the local church, because you do not have the right material for building.
It is very important that not only our spiritual lives need to be built, but that we need to know our relationship not only with the Lord, but with one another. In other words, relatedness.
We find that lots of God’s people may seek the Lord individually and may love the Lord individually, but somehow they are never related to their brothers and sisters. If there is no relatedness, there is no building. We see lots of people together, but very little building together.
Of course, there is also the matter of the coordination of the functioning of the different members of the body of Christ. Every member of the body of Christ must function, but when they function, how are they to be coordinated together? This is very essential to the building of the body of Christ.
It is also very important to know what authority is and what obedience is; what our relationship is with one another; and what our responsibilities and privileges are. All these things are essential to the building of the local assemblies.
But because of the limitation of time, we limit ourselves again. You see, we are limiting and limiting and limiting. So we are limiting ourselves to just two things: government and ministry, because we feel these two things are very urgently needed in our days.
First: government in local assemblies. Why government? Without going into details—because if we go into details, we have to go through the whole Bible—the whole Bible talks about government.
Our God is the Creator. He governs this universe. His dominion is over all. He exercises His government in this universe—not only the universe that you can see, but even the universe that is unseen. He is God, and He rules over all.
But let us think just of the church. In the church, you find that God has His government. Christ is the Head of the church, which is His body. Government is upon His shoulder.
Dear brothers and sisters, in the church we need to recognize Christ as the Head. He is our government. He is the Ruler, the King. He is our authority.
It is extremely essential for us to hold fast the Head. In Colossians 2:19, it says:
Holding fast the Head,
from whom all the body,
being supplied and knit together
through the joints and bands,
increaseth with the increase of God.
How can the church be built? How can the body increase with the increase of God? Hold fast the Head. When you think of the head, you think of government, because it is the head that governs the body.
Brothers and sisters, do we hold fast the Head? This speaks to every member in the body. Every member in the body must hold fast the Head. Do we allow His government to come upon us in our personal life?
Do we let Him be our Head? Has there come a time in your life when you surrendered yourself to Him and took Him as your Lord, as your King, as your government, telling the Lord that from now on He is your Master and you obey Him in all things? Have you done that? Or do you do that every day? Renew your consecration every day. Hold fast the Head.
In all our spiritual life and daily life, you find there is a constant struggle within you and all around you as to who is the head. All the temptations that come upon you tempt you not to hold fast Christ as your Head.
How we need to be watchful and pray, that daily, hourly, moment by moment, we hold fast Christ as Head. If we all hold fast Christ as the Head, the Scripture says all the body will be united together.
The reason why the body is not united is because we are not holding fast the Head. Someone is not holding fast the Head, or no one is holding fast the Head, and that is the problem.
If we all, in our daily life, hold fast Christ as the Head—government is upon His shoulder, not upon my shoulder, but upon His shoulder—then, brothers and sisters, all the body will be united together automatically. Not only united together, but ministering one to another by joints of supply and connection, and increasing with the increase of God.
So I cannot emphasize it too strongly. You see, this is spiritual principle applied. We have to hold fast the Head. In the church, there is no other head but Christ. We are not for Paul, we are not for Apollos, we are not for Cephas; we are all for Christ.
The problem in the church today is because we remove Christ as the Head and replace Him with something else. It can be a spiritual person, a spiritual giant. It can be a teaching, a doctrine, a system, a form, or a tradition.
Dear brothers and sisters, whenever we do not hold fast Christ as the Head, the body disintegrates. So first of all, we have to see that we must hold fast Christ as the Head.
Christ is the Head of every man—and that includes woman. He is the Head of every person, every believer. Do not ask why the church is not built. Do not ask why we are not united. Do not ask why we do not see the body in function. Just ask one question: “Do I hold fast Christ as the Head?”
The head is government, yes. This is where the wisdom is, where the control is, where the will is. But under the head you have the body. The head needs a body to express itself, and the church is His body.
Now, brothers and sisters, what is a body? A body is a living organism. It is not a dead organization. It is a living organism full of life.
Because there is life, there is order. Is there organization in the local church? Yes, but that organization is not something organized from outside. It is organized by life.
Look at your body. It is a perfect organization. Everything is perfectly organized. No organ or member is in the wrong place. Suppose some organ or some member is in the wrong place—you know what will happen.
It is perfectly united together, fitted together, and ministers one to another. There is a divine order there, and the divine order is according to divine life. It comes out from within.
May I use an illustration? What really connects the body and the head? What part of the body comes next to the head? Your neck.
All the nerve systems, everything, goes through the neck. All the impulses that you receive from all the members go through the neck to the head, and all the commands and responses come from the head through the neck to the different members of the body.
Now, I may use this illustration, though it is not a good illustration. Christ is the Head. He never removes Himself from being the Head of the church—not only the universal church, but the local church too.
Do not think that in the local church He is no longer the Head. He is still the Head. But, for practical reasons, the way He governs His body as a local assembly is to set up a neck there. The neck is the eldership that you find in Scripture. That is the government.
We will explain that later on. But anyway, you find that there is a neck there, and it is the passage, as it were, the connection between the Head and the other parts of the body.
The neck is not the commanding post; it is the Head. But unfortunately, sometimes in the local church the eldership thinks that they are the head, and you get into trouble, because they are not the head. They are the neck. That is all we can say.
If the neck is not connected with the head, then it is useless. So you find that in the body of Christ there is an order there; there is a government there.
Naturally, we do not like it. In our natural life, what is natural life? It is “I, myself.” So you find that in our natural life we do not like to be governed. We like to govern.
That was the situation with Adam and Eve in the first place. With that kind of life in us, it is natural to us. We do not like government. So when we talk about government, we react against it. But if you really know what government is, you will love it. We will explain that later.
Anyway, you find that in the body God does set up His government in the local church for the sake of building up the body.
Or we may use another illustration. What is the church? The church is the house of God. The house, again, is an organic house. In the house, there is order.
Our Lord Jesus is the Son over His house. But He also sets up His government and order in His house.
In 1 Timothy, you find Paul saying to Timothy that he wrote these things so that he might know how to behave in the house of God. Now, brothers and sisters, we are the house of God, but we need to know how to behave in the house of God.
In our behavior in the house of God, you find there is a matter of government. If you never recognize government in the local assembly, you do not know how to behave in the house of God. You need to recognize it.
You also find Paul telling Titus to set right the things that remained unordered. Again, you find there is government; there is order in the house of God. But again, we want to emphasize that it is according to life.
Or, we may use another illustration: the church is the family of God. We are a family. Our heavenly Father is the Father of the family. Our Lord Jesus is the elder Brother.
When the Father is there, of course He is the government. If a father is not there, the eldest son will take over. Suppose the eldest son is not there—then what is going to happen?
In the church, in the house, in the family of God, you have brothers and sisters. Some are older and some are younger. Older means older spiritually; younger means younger spiritually. Those who are older spiritually will take care of the family.
There is order there. Again, there is government. Otherwise, there will be chaos.
We say the church is the kingdom of God. Now, it is a kingdom. There must be a King there. There must be government there.
So, brothers and sisters, I think it is very clear in Scripture that there is government in the local assembly. The church is a theocracy, not a democracy.
In our concept, especially in this country, we think that even the church is a democracy. But no, the church is not a democracy. It is a theocracy. God rules over all, and He sets up His government in His church.
We would all like to go through the book of Acts and see how the government in the local church evolved.
When our Lord Jesus was on earth, He preached to a crowd, to many people. But then He chose twelve disciples. These twelve were with Him day and night. He trained them for over three years.
They were apostles. He trained them in leadership. Even though Judas failed, if you read the book of Acts, you find Peter speaking of Judas’s overseership, or leadership, or office.
The Holy Spirit confirmed Matthias to be one of the twelve. Matthias, even though he was not chosen by the Lord while the Lord was on earth, was one who followed the Lord from the very beginning. They chose from among those who followed the Lord from the days of John the Baptist until He was taken up to heaven.
So, in other words, you find that Matthias had followed the Lord all those years, and he was picked by the Holy Spirit as one of the twelve. But anyway, you find that the Lord Himself had trained these people for over three years—trained them for government and trained them for leadership.
On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down and baptized the one hundred and twenty who were praying with one accord in that upper room. They were baptized in one Spirit into one body. That is the beginning of the church on earth.
Immediately, through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the proclamation of His resurrection, three thousand were added in one day. There you find the church in Jerusalem, the local church, beginning in Jerusalem.
Now, with three thousand one hundred and twenty members in the body of Christ, how did they function? In Acts 2:42, it says they persevered, they continued on, they devoted themselves daily to the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, to breaking of bread, and to prayers.
You find that the life within them brought them together, and they devoted their lives to the teaching of the apostles, which is none other than the teaching of Christ. They also devoted themselves to the fellowship of the apostles. Again, it is the fellowship of Christ, because we are all called into the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
They not only had the teaching, but they had the fellowship. They broke bread together to remember the Lord, to exhibit His victory, and to wait for His return. They prayed together, praying that the kingdom would come, that God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven, and that God’s name would be sanctified.
They were together as one man. They loved one another. They lived for one another. They lived for Christ. That is the early church, the church in Jerusalem.
But with so many people, and the Lord adding daily to them, brothers and sisters, we figure that in the early years the church in Jerusalem probably came to about twenty thousand people.
With twenty thousand people, you have many problems—perhaps twenty thousand problems, or more. Sure enough, they had problems. Of course they had. But with so many people, in order not to be chaotic, there needed to be some government.
It is true that everybody was holding fast the Head. But still, for practical reasons, you find that the Lord Himself had trained the twelve to be the governing body in the church in Jerusalem. The Lord had already provided.
There you find these twelve. They not only ministered the Word, but they also served the tables. In other words, they took care of all the brothers and sisters. They were the leadership. They were the governing body. They had been prepared beforehand by our Lord for that moment.