Will you please turn to the book of Acts, chapter 26, verse 19?
Acts 26:19.
Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.
I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.
Let us pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, as we gather here together in the name of Thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, we know that Thy presence is here with us. All we ask of Thee is that Thou wilt put away any veil that may be upon our hearts, that we may behold the glory of the Lord and be transformed from glory to glory according to His image, as by the Lord, the Spirit.
So, Lord, we just ask Thee to grant us this morning the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of God, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
We do thank the Lord for giving us this time to be together. I feel that it is such a privilege for God’s people to be together. It is good that we may be together in the presence of our God, to encourage one another in the Lord.
Because we are living in a very special time. I believe, brothers and sisters, we all have a sense in our spirit that the coming of the Lord is very imminent. He is nearer, probably, than what we think. As the Scripture says, He is at the door.
And because the coming of the Lord is so near, the morning is coming, but the night also comes. So, in a sense, we are living in the darkest of the night before the day dawns. And it is very difficult during that hour for us to be kept watchful, alert, prepared, and in tune with God and His purpose.
I was reminded of the apostle Paul. Before his martyrdom, he wrote to Timothy; and there, in 2 Timothy 4, he says:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.
What a fight the apostle Paul had fought. He told us that he fought with the wild beasts in Ephesus. He fought against the unbelieving, idol-worshipping Gentiles. He fought against the unbelieving Jews. He fought against the Judaizers who tried to alter the truth of the gospel. He fought against the evil forces in the world. He fought against sin, flesh, and the world.
We find that the apostle Paul fought with all that God had given to him. He received many wounds, but he fought on. He was a good warrior.
And he really had run the race. On the road to Damascus, the Lord put him on that race. It was a marathon, an obstacle race; and yet you find the apostle Paul, he ran with patience, with endurance.
Now, if we read 2 Corinthians 6 and 2 Corinthians 11, you will find how he ran that race: in many perils, in prison often, in nakedness, in hunger, through honour and dishonour. He went through all these problems and difficulties with patience and endurance. He could declare at the end that he had finished the race.
And then, of course, we know how he had kept the faith—the faith that was once delivered to the saints. He had not given up any of the faith, but he had kept it. Oh, the apostle Paul! He could declare towards the end of his life that he had fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith.
Now, brothers and sisters, do we have a less severe fight to fight? Do we have an easier race to run? Or do we have less faith to keep?
If we compare our days with the days of Paul, if we do not say that they are the same, probably we can say our days are even more difficult, because we are approaching the end. And as the end is closing in, the days become more and more difficult.
But then we need to ask ourselves: Have we fought the good fight? Have we finished the race? Or have we kept the faith? Are we good warriors for the Lord? Do we run with patience to the end? Have we compromised with the faith once delivered to the saints?
So I think it is very urgent, very essential, for us to consider together before the Lord: How can we fight the good fight, finish the race, and keep the faith in these last days? Is there any secret that enabled Paul to do so? And if there is such a secret, we would like to learn it.
If we want to use one sentence to sum up the life and ministry of the apostle Paul, I think it is that sentence that we read in the beginning. There you find he said, “King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.”
He could testify before King Agrippa that he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. That explains him. That explains his life. That explains his ministry. That tells us the secret that enabled him to fight the good fight, finish the race, and keep the faith.
So this morning, we would like to consider together before the Lord this matter of the heavenly vision.
I do not know if some of you brothers and sisters are tired of hearing the word vision. We have talked about vision, mentioned vision, so many times that probably we are a little bit tired of it.
Now, you can call it whatever you want to. If you do not like the word vision, call it revelation. Or if you do not like the word revelation, call it purpose. If you do not like the word purpose, call it ambition. And if you do not like the word ambition, call it dream.
You know, you may call it whatever you want to, but, brothers and sisters, you cannot escape it. Because this is the most fundamental, essential, vital, critical thing in our lives.
Even in the natural world, no one can succeed without a vision, without a dream. If a person has no vision, he has no dream, no ambition. He is a drifter. He just drifts along with the current. He has no aim in his life, and because of this, no meaning to his life.
A man without vision is a loser. He never succeeds. He is nobody, nothing—undistinguished, unknown. In whatever area in the world, whether it is political, economic, educational, or even religious, if a person does not have a vision, does not have a dream, he is a loser.
Now, if this is true in the natural world, how much more true it is in the spiritual world. And that is the reason why we find the wisest man in the world, Solomon, wrote in Proverbs 29:18:
Where there is no vision, the people perish.
Lange tells us that the word perish in Hebrew simply means to untie or unpin the hair, and let the hair just fall down. Now, that is in Hebrew. So, in other words, without vision, people cast off restraint. They come loose—no discipline, no direction, no purpose—and because of this, perish.
And this is very, very true. In the spiritual world, it is essential that we have vision.
The apostle Paul, before he became Paul, was Saul. And you know, this man Saul was a man with vision, even in the worldly sense. He was a man with dreams, with ambition. He wanted to be the Pharisee of the Pharisees. He wanted to be the rabbi of the rabbis.
And because of this, you find how he put himself into this task. Even though he was young, he was way ahead of his contemporaries. And he was on his way to become what he wanted to be—a man with ambition.
But then, on the road to Damascus, he received the heavenly vision. A light shone upon him. He fell to the ground. He heard a voice:
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.
And Saul said, “Lord, who art Thou?” And the voice said, “I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.” Then Saul said, “Lord, what shall I do?”
Brothers and sisters, there on the road to Damascus, you find two visions in collision. Here you find Saul the Pharisee. He had a vision, an ambition, and he was on that course to fulfil it. And yet here you find heaven opened, the light came upon him, and a heavenly vision came to him in collision with his earthly vision. It finished Saul and created Paul.
Brothers and sisters, when the heavenly vision comes, it invariably, unavoidably, finishes your earthly vision. If you say you have received the heavenly vision, and yet you can continue on your course, do what you have planned to do, do what you want to be, then, brothers and sisters, I have every reason to doubt if you have received the heavenly vision.
Because whenever the heavenly vision comes, it always destroys the earthly vision. You can never be the same. You can never do what you were planning to do. You either change your direction completely, or it changes the very character of what you are involved in. It is so drastic, so revolutionary.
You know, brothers and sisters, as our brother mentioned last night, we are Christians. Now, what is a Christian? A Christian is a new creation.
Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God.
You know, regeneration—new birth—is a great revolution. It revolutionises your whole being. You cannot be what you were before, because you are a new creation.
Now, brothers and sisters, did such a revolution come into your life when you believed in the Lord Jesus? How unfortunate it is that, when we look back to the day when we were saved, it may shift a little bit of our direction, but it does not change our course. We have not been revolutionised as we should. We are not fully saved.
If you look into the Word of God, you find that people of faith are people with vision. Think of Noah. Noah received a revelation: there was a flood coming, and God showed him the ark.
And because of this revelation, it revolutionised the life of Noah. For 120 years, he became a shipbuilder. He was the first shipbuilder in the world, because before his time there was no rain upon this earth. The vegetation was moistened by the dew, but there was no rain.
And yet here you find Noah. He spent 120 years building that ark. He became the laughingstock of the world. People would come and say, “Noah, what are you doing? What are you building, this strange structure? Nobody has seen such a thing before.” And he was building an ark for the flood. “Now, where is the rain?” They never knew what rain was.
And he became a preacher of righteousness. He preached, calling people to repent and enter into the ark. He did not succeed; he saved only his own family. But, brothers and sisters, that made Noah what he was.
Think of Abraham. The Lord of glory appeared to him, and because of that, he changed his whole life. He could not stay on in Ur of the Chaldees, walking his familiar ground, being with his family. But we find that he had to go out, not knowing where, but he knew God was calling him. And he would live a life of pilgrim and stranger, living in tents.
Think of Moses. He saw the invisible One, and that finished him with the palace, with all the riches in Egypt. He had to go with the Lord, bearing His reproach.
Brothers and sisters, think of the apostles in the early days. When the Lord called them, they left everything and followed the Lord. They saw the Lord—not just physically, because many people saw the Lord physically at that time—but we find, as John said in John 1:14, “We beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father.”
And, brothers and sisters, when they saw the glory of the Lord in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, they had to leave all and follow Him. The same was true with the apostle Paul. The Lord met him and changed his course completely.
Now, it is true. I remember when I was a high school student. Thank God, many fellow students were saved. But I had a very close friend, my classmate, and we tried to preach the gospel to him.
And you know what he said? He said, “If God will give me a vision like He gave to Paul, then I will believe.” Unfortunately, so far as I can remember, that never came. He was killed in Hong Kong when the Japanese came in.
We may not be given exactly the same form, the same manner, of that heavenly vision. Do not expect that. But, brothers and sisters, there is only one heavenly vision in the Scripture. God has only one heavenly vision to give.
It may come to different people in different forms and different ways, according to our conditions. But, brothers and sisters, it is the same vision. The Scripture does not give us two visions, or many visions.
Now, there are, as Paul said, many visions and revelations in 2 Corinthians 12, but that is given in the details. So far as the supreme, overall vision from heaven is concerned, brothers and sisters, there is only one, and one only.
Abel saw the better sacrifice. Noah saw the ark. Abraham saw the city which hath foundations. Moses saw the tabernacle. David saw the temple. Isaiah saw the Lord in the temple, high and lifted up. Daniel saw the coming King.
Zechariah saw the golden lampstand, with two olive trees standing by, pouring into that lampstand gold. Peter saw a white sheet coming down from heaven, filled with beasts and creatures, and heard a voice: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.”
Paul saw that heavenly Man, that universal Man: Christ, the Head in heaven, His body spread all over the world. John saw the seven lampstands, with the Son of Man in the midst; and finally, he saw the New Jerusalem, the holy city descending from heaven.
Are they different visions? You see a progression there. God reveals that vision to the world step by step, from the living, better sacrifice to the holy city, the New Jerusalem. You can see how it develops, how it grows.
Brothers and sisters, now we have the full vision revealed to us in the Word of God. So to us today, it is not a matter of how full that vision is; it is a matter of how much we see. The vision is there, but how much do we see it?
Now, it is true even in the life of the apostle Paul that vision grew in his life. On the road to Damascus, we may say he saw the framework, the outline, of the heavenly vision. He saw Christ the Head, with a body that covered not only Jerusalem, all the cities of Judea, even Samaria, even Damascus.
But that was the beginning. And because he was faithful to what he saw, therefore you find throughout his life that vision grew, that vision developed.
And, brothers and sisters, this must be true with us today. We need, first of all, to see the outline of that heavenly vision. We need to have a vision of the framework of it. And then, if we are faithful, the Lord will reveal all the details in their proper forms. This is essential.
Now, what is that vision? We want to put it in very plain words. That heavenly vision is none other than Christ and His church.
Now, what is the earthly vision? No matter what kind of vision you see or have, or ambition or dream you dream, in essence, the heavenly vision is Christ and His church. In essence, the earthly vision is man and his own self.
Think of Adam. He was ambitious. He wanted to be like God. He could not wait, and because of this, he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He wanted to make himself.
Think of Nimrod. I wonder if you have heard of Nimrod. Probably he was the first empire-builder, and he was the one who led that rebellion to build the Tower of Babel. For what reason? To make man a name, to exalt man.
Think of Nebuchadnezzar. You must have heard of him. You know, he built a huge golden statue of a man. He was that man. He was not satisfied with the revelation that God had given to him and explained to him by Daniel—that he was just a head of gold. He wanted to be the whole thing. Ambition!
Now that is the earthly vision. No matter what your dream is, no matter what the ambition is, it comes down to one thing: you, self.
But then, when you think of the heavenly vision, how different it is. That heavenly vision delivers us from the earth. That heavenly vision finishes man. It finishes you. It brings in Christ and the church.
Oh, brothers and sisters, if you do not have that heavenly vision, you are still a Saul. You are yet self-centred. You have not been uplifted out of this earth. But when a heavenly vision comes, it is so drastic. It kills the natural man.
And that is the reason why many people have not received the heavenly vision, or try to escape the heavenly vision, because it finishes your earthly vision. If you want to continue your own course, if you want to be what you plan to be, then avoid the heavenly vision.
If you will forgive me, I will mention our dear brother Watchman Nee. When he was a young man in school, he was very brilliant. And he had lots of plans. He planned his future. He wanted to be something, somebody, and do something. And very likely he would succeed.
And one day, he heard the gospel. When he heard the gospel, he knew it was true. He knew he was a sinner. He knew that Christ was the Saviour. But he could not believe it. He could not accept it. Why? Because it cut across his ambition.
He knew that if he should accept Jesus as his Saviour, he had to accept Jesus as his Lord. He had to give up himself. He had to give up his plans. He had to give up his earthly vision and ambition, and be capitulated to Christ. He could not do that.
He struggled over this matter for a few days, until one day the love of Christ constrained him, and he gave up himself. The Lord changed his course.
Instead of being that which he wanted to be, he became a poor preacher. Even his professor one day looked at him from top to bottom, shook his head, and said, “What a pity. You could be somebody, but look at yourself now.”
Brothers and sisters, this is heavenly vision. The whole Bible is just Christ and His church. Brother Nee told us, he said, “If you see Christ and His church, the whole Bible is open to you.” And how true it is.
The Old Testament: all types, shadows, representations. But where do you find the antitypes? Where is the substance? Where is the reality?
Now, when we read the Old Testament, if all we see are some biographies of great men and women, or some history—especially the history of the children of Israel—or if all that we see are prophecies, or even psalms and praises, then, brothers and sisters, we miss the point.
You live in the shadow; you do not have the substance, and the shadow passes away. You live in the types; you are not in the reality.
Thank God, in the New Testament we find that the mystery of God is opened up. And there you find so plainly Christ and His church. The Gospels show us Christ and show us the church—the history, the story, of Christ and His church. The Epistles explain, teach, and tell us what Christ is and what the church is. And the book of Revelation consummates in the New Jerusalem, where Christ is all and in all.
Brothers and sisters, here you find in the New Testament it is so clear. But unfortunately, when people are reading the New Testament, all they see are just some more stories, some more histories, some religious organisation called Christianity that seems to be able to spread, some doctrines, some teachings.
Brothers and sisters, what a pity that we do not see Christ and His church in the Bible.
And no wonder we cannot fight a good fight. You know, brothers and sisters, as a matter of fact, if you do not have that heavenly vision, you have no fight to fight. You have no race to run. You have no faith to keep.
That heavenly vision puts you in the fight. And that is the reason why you find there are many Christians who do not know what spiritual warfare is. There is no warfare, because there is no vision. He is the same as the world. He seeks the things that the world is seeking. He is no different from the world. The world befriends him, and he befriends the world. There is no fight.
The enemy is not concerned about you. He can take a nap over you. There is no race to run. Why? There is no direction. You know, vision gives us direction, gives us a goal. And if you have no vision, there is no direction. You are like a child, attracted by one thing at one time, and the next minute he is attracted by another thing, and off he goes.
You will compromise with the faith to save your skin. It is only people with heavenly vision who are in the fight, who are in the race, and who are in the faith.
Vision gives us the strength to fight, the discipline to run, and a love to keep the faith.
Brothers and sisters, I do not know how. I just look to the Lord, by His Spirit, that He will really impress upon your heart that without vision, you perish.
Now, what is vision? You say, “Well, if I have no vision, then I am not saved. Surely I have seen Jesus as the Saviour.” Thank God for that. You are saved.
But, brothers and sisters, that heavenly vision is more than just seeing the Lord Jesus as your Saviour. The heavenly vision is related to the eternal purpose of God.
You may see Jesus as your Saviour, or you may even experience Him as your Comforter, or you may even know Him as your Supplier. But you still are lacking in the heavenly vision.
Let me illustrate. The children of Israel were slaves in Egypt. They were under the sentence of death, but by the blood of the paschal lamb they were passed over. They did not die.
And on the strength of the meat of the lamb, they started the heavenly pilgrimage. They crossed the Red Sea, baptised unto Moses, as it were. And there in the wilderness, you find God rained manna to them to feed them. And from the smitten rock, a river followed them through the wilderness to give them water.
But, brothers and sisters, they are a people who perished in the wilderness—not in Egypt, but in the wilderness. They failed to enter into the promised land. You know the words: they did not arrive. They did not come into the purpose of God concerning them.
And, brothers and sisters, this is the same with us today. Thank God, by the blood of the Lamb, our Lord Jesus, our sins are forgiven. Thank God that He has given us eternal life. Thank God He answers our prayers. Thank God we were baptised unto Christ. Thank God He supplies our every need. We know Him as our supply, our comfort.
But, brothers and sisters, in spite of knowing all these, are we not still self-centred? Everything is Christ for me. He saved me. He supplies my needs. It is all me.
Not until you see that heavenly vision are you delivered from me. You become Christ-centred. And therefore, you find the heavenly vision is not just any vision of Christ; it is a vision of Christ and His church in relation to the purpose of God.
Unless we are united with God in Christ in His purpose, brothers and sisters, we remain babes in Christ.
That heavenly vision tells us what Christ is. What does it tell us about Himself? Of course, we can only try to sum up; otherwise, we will have to start eternity from now.
There is one passage in the Scripture that I feel will, in a sense, sum up what Christ is in the eternal purpose of God. And that is Revelation 1:17-18:
Fear not; I am the first and the last,
and the Living One; and I became dead,
and behold, I am alive for evermore,
and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
Now here you find our Lord Jesus. He declared Himself to His beloved disciple, the apostle John. John was one who knew the Lord so intimately when the Lord was on earth, and yet you find when he saw the Lord in glory, he fell as one dead. And then the Lord said, “Fear not. I will tell you who I am. I will tell you what I am in the eternal purpose of God.”
Now, John knew the Lord Jesus as the Saviour, no doubt about that—his Master. But here the Lord Jesus said, “I am the First. I am the First.” What does that mean?
You remember, in the Epistles, he said in Colossians 1 that it is God’s will that Christ shall have the pre-eminence in all things. Now that is the will of God. The will of God is that Christ should have the first place in all things. He shall have the priority. He is the beginning. He must be first in all things.
All things in your life—whether it is in your personal life, your family life, your church life, your social life—you find that Christ has to be first.
It is easy to say, “Lord, You are the first.” But it is very difficult when it comes down to daily life. Is Christ really the first in your affection, the first in your thoughts, the first in all things that you do?
Do you have your plan and then ask Him to put His stamp upon it? Or do you allow Him to show you His plan for you? Brothers and sisters, this is the heavenly vision. A person who has seen the heavenly vision has to let Christ be the first.
You remember in the Gospels how the Lord challenged His disciples again and again:
If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.
This is not related to initial salvation. This is related to the heavenly vision. Christ has to be first. This is God’s will.
And He has to be the last, because all the purpose of God is summed up in Him. All the fulfilment of God’s purpose is in Him. He must be the last. In other words, does He have the last word in your life, the last word in the church?
Well, in the early days, you find the church in Jerusalem. When they had a problem with Antioch, they came together and discussed. You can discuss, but who has the last word? The Holy Spirit.
He is the last. What does that mean? It means that all glory goes back to Him. All things are from Him, through Him, and unto Him. To Him be glory for ever. Amen. Is it true?
He is the first and the last, and all in between. In other words, that is what the Scripture says: He is all and in all.
Brothers and sisters, that is the heavenly vision. He said, “I am the Living One.” He is life, the originator of life, the life-giving Spirit. If you have anything to do with Christ, it has to be life.
It is not just teaching or doctrine, however accurate that may be. It is not just form, however orthodox it may be. It is life. Is your relationship with Christ a life relationship? Is the church’s relationship with Christ a life relationship?
He said, “I am the Living One.” And that is what I am, and that is what I am giving: life. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. Brothers and sisters, anything that is not life is not of God, is not of Christ; it is tradition.
“Behold, I became dead.” Why? As the work of Christ, He came into this world to die. He did not need to die. He cannot die as God, but He came as a man to die.
He died to save us; more, to destroy death. He entered into death, He swallowed death with His life, and He came out in resurrection.
And, brothers and sisters, anything that has something to do with Christ in that eternal purpose of God has to be on the ground of resurrection. Whatever is not on resurrection ground is not of God, is not in the purpose of God. It has to be on resurrection ground.
And He said, “I hold the keys of death and of Hades.” His victory is so complete that now He holds the keys of death and of Hades.
Now, this is the eternal purpose of God concerning Christ. This is what Christ is. And to us, do we know Him as such? Do we catch a glimpse of what Christ is? He is much greater than we think.
Brother Sparks used to say, “Make Christ more.” And how true it is—we do. May the Lord enlarge our vision.
And, brothers and sisters, what is the church in the eternal purpose of God? It is not just a gathering of the saints—not to say it is a religious gathering of the world. It is more than that.
And I think another two verses probably can sum that up: Ephesians 1:22-23.
And He put all things in subjection under His feet,
and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,
which is His body,
the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.
Brothers and sisters, the church is so much bigger than what people think today. He says here that Christ is Head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.
First of all, you find, what is the church? The church is the body of Christ. Christ is the Head; the church is His body. All the intelligence, all the control, all the wisdom, all the riches, all the direction, are in the Head. And that Head is joined with a body.
In other words, that body is to inherit, is to contain, all that the Head is, and to manifest the Head. Now that is the church.
The Head and the body are one. And that is the reason why the risen Head said, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” Because he touched members of His body. There is a unity of awareness between the Head and the body.
The body contains all the riches of the Head, and the body is under the headship of Christ. The body is to manifest all the glory of the Head. Today the world does not see the Head, but they do see the body, and through the body they see the Head. Now that is what the church is.
What is the church? It says that God has made Christ Head over all things to the church. Christ is not only the Head of the church; He is Head over all things to the church. What does it mean?
I think it means at least two things. One thing is: Christ is Head over all things, and His headship over all things is to the church. That is, He has control over all things, and He gave that victory to the church, that the church may be above all things, that the church may find all things work together for good, that the church may subdue all things to Christ.
Christ is made Head over all things to the church. The church is not only to enjoy all that Christ is as Head over all. And that is the reason why you find Paul, in Romans 8, singing a song of victory, a triumphant song:
Who shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
Is there anything in earth, under the earth, now or in the future—anything that can separate us from God? No, because Christ is Head over all things to the church.
And not only that: we become that instrument in God to bring all things back to Christ, because it is the will of God to sum up all things in Christ. That is the purpose of God.
So, brothers and sisters, you will find that is the heavenly vision. That heavenly vision ought to destroy any earthly ambition in us, or to finish us, as it were. That heavenly vision ought to uplift us to heaven, to enlarge our capacity, and to humble us, seeing how little we know of that heavenly vision.
But, brothers and sisters, we need that framework, that outline. And if we have received that outline, then if we are faithful, God will fill in the details until we find truly the church is the body of Christ, the fulness of Him who filleth all in all.
So may the Lord have mercy. Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, we do feel ourselves as little children playing with pebbles by the seashore. We do not know how vast, how deep, is the ocean.
But how we praise and thank Thee, because the heavenly vision that Thou hast so graciously given to Thy church through the centuries is beyond our comprehension, but we do praise Thee indeed it is not beyond our reach.
Thou hast given it to Thy church; and, Lord, we want to see it. We want to be involved in it. We want to be part of it.
So, Lord, this morning we just humble ourselves before Thee and say, “Lord, give us vision, that we may see. We may see Christ and the church; that we may be delivered from ourselves; that we may be delivered from individualism; that we may be delivered into Christ and into the church.”
And to Thee be the glory. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.