Because we are busy at work, there is a need for us to separate ourselves from the work, to quiet ourselves, to rest, and to return to the presence of the Lord—to look at the Lord.
In my heart, I have such a feeling as we find in 2 Peter. In Peter’s old age, he exhorted the brothers and sisters, saying, “I am here to remind you,” not because they did not know. Sometimes we need to be reminded.
Many times in the church and in our work, there is a danger that we fully immerse ourselves in the work to the extent that we forget what God wants to accomplish and gain in the work and in the church. In the beginning, we may have some vision and some burden, but external works and labor can occupy our hearts. Gradually, we become blurred concerning the vision and our path.
So we need to take time out to quiet ourselves and return to the Lord. We need to lay what we are and what we do in the light of the Lord, allowing Him to enlighten us, remind us again, and encourage us again.
Sometimes in the service of the church and in the work, we encounter many difficulties. Because of these difficulties, we may lose heart, become discouraged, withdraw, or compromise in order to minimize the difficulties. Therefore, there is a need for us to gather before the Lord and encourage one another.
This is the reason for our gathering at this time. I hope the brothers and sisters will not feel that there is a leader leading this meeting. Rather, may all of us come before the Lord, wait before Him together, and quiet ourselves before Him.
We also desire to fellowship with one another, sharing what the Lord has given us by grace in the work and in the church, and sharing the difficulties we have encountered. Through such fellowship, we can receive help from many brothers and sisters.
Because we have only two days, there needs to be a scope for this gathering. In the morning, we will look at the word of the Lord. In the afternoon, we will devote ourselves to fellowship concerning the matters considered in the morning. In the evening, we will devote the whole time to prayer.
I hope the brothers and sisters will feel free. We are not here merely to hold a meeting; we are here to gather before the Lord and to have fellowship with one another.
As I waited before the Lord, I had the feeling that this morning we should fellowship a little concerning the essence of the church and the work. What is the essence of the church? What is the essence of the work? Tomorrow morning, we hope to fellowship concerning the relationship between the church and the work.
This morning I would like to share concerning the essence of the church. What is the church, after all? Many times we use the term church loosely, and, unbeknown to us, we become blurred concerning its essence. We may even mix up the church and the work.
The church is not merely a gathering of men, nor is it a product of history. Many times, people think the church is the totality of men’s opinions. People express their thoughts and opinions, and according to their concepts, they set up a church. These are the opinions of men.
At other times, people think that the church is merely a product of history—that after two thousand years, it has transformed alongside history, and that each age should have a kind of church matching the history of that time. But the church is not such a thing at all.
Today, there is much confusion in Christianity because of men’s opinions and because men think the church changes alongside history. When we mention the church, we must return to God’s original thought.
Scripture shows us that before the foundation of the world, God ordained a mystery in His Son. This mystery was purposed in eternity past, within the heart of God, according to His will. This purpose was in His Son; in other words, it was for His Son.
God loves His Son and desires to express His love toward Him. Love is not merely a word; love must have an expression in reality. Because God loves His only begotten Son, He would give the whole universe to His Son. Yet, in the midst of all things, God has a unique gift for His beloved Son: that gift is the church.
In God’s estimation, for His Son to inherit all creation is still not enough. His Son needs a counterpart—a group of people who can share His life, share His character, and be filled with His image and character, so that His Son may be comforted.
This concept of the church did not issue from men, nor was it a product of human history. It was ordained in eternity past, when God purposed for His beloved Son to have a group of people made one, that they might be the body of His Son and also His Son’s counterpart.
When God created man, He created male and female. He created Adam from the dust of the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and Adam became a living soul.
Yet God said that it was not good for man to dwell alone. Though God had prepared the heavens and the earth so that man could have dominion and enjoy all God’s creation, God still said that it was not good for man to be alone.
In Genesis, God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep. He took something out of Adam, built it into a woman, and brought her to Adam. Adam said:
This is now bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh.
In typology, we see that God had already ordained such a purpose in His Son. To create the universe for His Son was merely an outward matter; God was not inwardly satisfied. Therefore, He created man and redeemed man, so that we, the redeemed, might possess the life of His Son, be conformed to the image of His Son, suffer with His Son, and be glorified with His Son.
This is the church. The church is God’s eternal purpose.
This purpose remained a mystery through the ages. Ephesians tells us that it was the mystery of God hidden in the ages. In the Old Testament, there were types and hints—such as Adam and Eve—and the prophets gave indications of God’s purpose. Yet it remained a mystery hidden in God.
God did not publicly proclaim what was hidden in His heart because the time had not yet come. But in the fullness of time, as Galatians 4 tells us, the Son of God came into the world, born of a woman and born under the law, to redeem us from the curse of the law so that we might receive sonship.
When our Lord Jesus came to the earth, His living and work revealed this hidden purpose. He showed us the kind of man for whom God was looking.
As Adam entered a deep sleep, so our Lord Jesus, at the end of His earthly life, was crucified on the cross. He passed through death, and out of Him came blood and water. By what God took out of Him, He would build.
The church is not only God’s eternal purpose; it is also the work that the Lord Jesus accomplished on the earth. Without the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, there would have been no way for the church to be manifested on earth because of man’s corruption.
The Lord shed His precious blood to wash away our sins. Through His death and resurrection, He imparted life to us. In this way, God has the material with which to build His church.
The Lord Jesus said:
Upon this rock I will build My church;
and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
This rock is our Lord. He builds His church upon Himself, using His own material among men to obtain what He is seeking. The church is not only God’s purpose; it is also the work of God’s Son.
Although the Lord accomplished redemption on earth, He said, “I will build My church.” While He was on earth, He had not yet built the church. He came to prepare the way of redemption, because without this way there would be no way for the church to begin.
While the Lord was on earth, He called disciples to follow Him. They received His life, came to know Him, learned from Him, and came to know His image and character. This was the foundational work of preparation so that they might match Him in life and character and become His counterpart.
After the Lord’s ascension, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out. Acts 2 shows us that when the one hundred and twenty were gathered in the upper room, the Holy Spirit descended, and in one Spirit they were baptized into one body.
As 1 Corinthians 12 tells us:
For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free;
and were all made to drink of one Spirit.
The church appeared on the day of Pentecost. Before that, the one hundred and twenty were individually saved and loved the Lord, but they were still merely a multitude. When the Holy Spirit baptized them into one body, they became members of one body—a living organism.
On that same day, three thousand were saved and were also baptized by the Holy Spirit into this one body. Through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, the church grows, matures, and comes into the fullness of the stature of Christ.
Through the Holy Spirit, the mystery hidden through the ages has now been revealed to the apostles and prophets. The hidden mystery has become an open mystery. Today, we can know what the church is and know its source.
The source of the church is the Triune God: God’s purpose, the redemption of Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Only this can reveal the church. We need to remind ourselves of this often, because in the busyness of the church we can forget it.
The church is not a material building. The church is the redeemed people—the ekklesia, those called out by God from the world, from every tribe, tongue, and nation, and gathered together.
The church is not an organization, a system, or something outward. The church is an organism. It is God’s redeemed people gathered together as one body, with Christ as the Head.
However, we cannot merely say that the church is the totality of all redeemed people in an outward sense. Each of us has Christ and the life of Christ, but each of us also carries the natural life, the flesh, and the self.
When we gather, the life of Christ in us is gathered, but the old man and the self may also come together. If we call this mixture the church, then the church would have many blemishes, spots, wrinkles, incompleteness, and problems.
Strictly speaking, before God the church is glorious, though in our eyes today the church appears full of blemishes. What, then, is the church?
First Corinthians 12:12 tells us:
For as the body is one, and hath many members,
and all the members of the body, being many, are one body;
so also is Christ.
We may think Paul should have said, “So also is the church.” But he says, “So also is Christ.” The reason is that before God, the church is Christ. Whatever is outside of Christ must pass through the cross and be terminated by the cross. What remains is Christ.
The church is the extension of Christ; it is Christ Himself expressed. Therefore, we, the redeemed, need to come before the Lord and undergo much affliction, training, discipline, and termination.
Otherwise, what God has ordained, what Christ has purchased with His precious blood, and what the Holy Spirit is seeking to accomplish cannot come forth. The essence and content of the church admit no mixture. In the church there is nothing but Christ.
If we truly see the church, we can only prostrate ourselves before God and allow the cross to do a deeper work in us. Otherwise, God cannot gain this church as the counterpart of His Son, because we have not been conformed to His image.
When we mention the church, this is not merely a doctrine. We must see the church in its essence and content. This is a great lesson and a great warning. Moment by moment, we need to examine ourselves lest we bring ourselves into the church and contaminate the body.
Concerning the building of the church, God has called us to work with Him. Yet, in reality, the building of the church is not something man can do. The Lord Himself said, “I will build My church upon this rock.”
The building of the church is in the hand of the Lord. Only the Lord Himself can build His church. Only God can build the church; only the Holy Spirit can build the church. It is possible for us to be used by God, but the building is not in our hands.
Because the church is so precious—the eternal companion God gives to His Son, holy, glorious, and perfect—none of us is qualified to build it by ourselves.
When men attempt to build the church, they are merely playing church. The result of man’s building is Babel, not the church. We must confess that Christ Himself must build the church.
We are the workmanship in His hands. First, we must allow Him to work in us. Then, out of what He has done in us, He may accomplish the work He desires through us.
All of us may be serving ones in the church, but in reality, it is not we who do the work. The Lord does His work through us. The real building is not ours; we are merely used by the Lord.
Whenever we ourselves want to build the church, problems come immediately. We must often remember that only Christ can build the church. We come to the Lord and say, “Lord, this is Your work. I cannot do it, but I am willing to yield myself into Your hand. Do a work first in me, and then work through me.”
The Lord Himself builds His church, but how does He build it? According to Scripture, on the day of Pentecost the church was born on earth.
The Lord first gained a group of people in Jerusalem. Within the same sphere, they were baptized into one body, and they rose up to testify for the Lord. This was Jerusalem.
In the early chapters of Acts, we see that daily the Lord added those who were being saved. In the original sense, He added them to Himself. This is significant. If people are merely added to an outward organization, we may think of the church as an institution. But to be added to the Lord Himself is to be joined to an organism.
The believers in Jerusalem may have numbered ten or twenty thousand. They enjoyed gathering together, but they were unwilling to scatter. Therefore, the Lord used persecution to scatter them abroad, and they went everywhere preaching the gospel.
In the process of building the church, the Lord works locality by locality. In each locality, the gospel is preached, people are saved, and they gather together to live for Christ, live out Christ, manifest the life and glory of Christ, and testify for Christ.
From Jerusalem, the testimony went to Samaria, Judea, and even to the remotest part of the earth. Wherever the gospel reaches, there the church is born, and there believers testify for the Lord.
When the gospel reached Taiwan, groups of believers met in Taipei, Kaohsiung, Tainan, and many other localities. Locality after locality and region after region, groups of people gathered in the name of the Lord.
The Lord said:
For where two or three are gathered together in My name,
there am I in the midst of them.
Because we still live in the flesh, we are limited by time and space; therefore, we need a locality. It is not merely one individual, but two or three gathered together. The smallest number that can represent a body is two or three.
To gather in the name of the Lord is to gather under His authority—to take Christ as the Head. There must be a Head before there can be a body. If there are many heads, there cannot be one body.
Whether there are two or three believers or ten or twenty thousand, if they gather under the headship and authority of Christ, in oneness they manifest Christ, and God’s presence is in their midst. This is the way the Lord builds.
The Lord’s method of building is through locality. It is not abstract; it begins in each locality. Yet there is only one universal church because there is only one Head, Christ, and the church is His one body.
Universally speaking, from the first church until the day the Lord comes to receive His bride, all the redeemed are in the one church. This is beyond the limitations of time and space. All the redeemed, in their totality, become His body.
The universal church begins with the local church. This work is not abstract; it is very practical.
In Revelation 2 and 3, we see seven local churches in Asia. The Lord Jesus, our High Priest, walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. He is building, illuminating, speaking, correcting, and revealing Himself to the churches.
The Lord speaks to the seven churches and builds each local assembly. But when we come to Revelation 21 and 22, we no longer see local assemblies. We see only one New Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, full of Christ.
At the beginning of Revelation, the Lord is building. At the conclusion of Revelation, He has gained what He seeks: the universal church. The process of building is real and practical.
The church’s commission and testimony on earth are shown in Revelation as the testimony of the seven golden lampstands. The church is like a lampstand.
The lampstand is pure gold. In the tabernacle, only two pieces of furniture were pure gold: the mercy seat and the lampstand. The other items were wood overlaid with gold.
We may think the lampstand should be wood overlaid with gold because it represents redeemed people. Yet, amazingly, the lampstand is pure gold because the lampstand is Christ. All the wood must be removed; there can be no wood in it.
The lampstand is not the purpose; it is a means. The church is not the purpose. The church is for Christ. Christ is the purpose.
What is the lampstand for? It holds up the light so that the light may illuminate the whole place. A lampstand is not a decoration. Its purpose is to give light, and Christ is the true light.
The mission and testimony of the church are to uplift Christ. As Paul says in Philippians, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, we shine as lights. Yet this light is not ourselves; the light is Christ.
First Peter speaks of a royal priesthood and a chosen race. Our purpose is to proclaim Him who has accomplished glorious redemption—to preach Christ.
The church does not preach itself. The church preaches Jesus Christ. The church does not take itself as the goal. It is merely a vessel of the Lord on earth.
Sometimes we have made the church itself the goal. We speak about the church all day long and forget Christ. Then we lose the testimony and mission of the church. If men can see only the church but cannot touch Christ in the church, we have failed.
The church is only the means; the goal is that the Lord may be gained.
In the church, people often pay attention to activities but do not pay sufficient attention to the living of the church. There may be many activities but very little living.
What is the living of the church? Of course, it is to live out Christ. This body exists for the purpose of manifesting Christ.
If we describe the practical living of the church with one verse, it is Acts 2:42:
And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship,
in the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Those redeemed in Jerusalem continually devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers. This is the basis of church life.
In the original language, apostles is plural, but teaching is singular. There were many apostles, but they did not each have their own teaching. They had one teaching and one fellowship.
The apostles received their teaching from the Lord and taught what they had received. They had no teaching of their own. Therefore, the teaching of the apostles is the Lord’s teaching.
We have no new teaching of our own. We faithfully teach what the Lord taught and fellowship what He has revealed. We cannot teach only part of what He has given; we must teach the whole counsel of God.
We cannot take one truth and make it the center. All truth has one center: Christ. Christ is the center.
The many truths are like the spokes of a wheel. Christ is the hub, and the various teachings of Scripture are the spokes. The wheel is the church.
Every spoke issues from Christ and reaches to the circumference of the church. If one truth is emphasized beyond its proper place, or if another truth is neglected, the wheel cannot function properly. We must have the fullness and balance of truth, with Christ as the center.
All truth is given to bring us into Christ, because Christ said:
I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
This teaching is not merely words. It is spirit and life. Peter did not have his own teaching, and Paul did not have his own teaching. Their fellowship was one.
In 1 John 1, John says that he and the other apostles had fellowship with the Father and with the Son, and that they declared this fellowship to the believers. The fellowship is the fellowship of the Father and the Son in the Spirit, and through the apostles we are brought into it.
Practically speaking, the content of our fellowship is Christ Himself. Because we have one fellowship, we can have fellowship with one another. When we receive this fellowship, our living manifests Christ, and we can live out the body life.
This is very practical in two matters: the breaking of bread and prayer. In the breaking of bread, we remember the Lord. This is the living of the church.
When we break bread, we fellowship with the Lord and with all God’s children. The bread represents Christ and the body of Christ. On the one hand, He gave Himself for us; on the other hand, the broken bread represents the body that was broken.
When we remember the Lord in the breaking of bread, we return to the Lord. In the church life, the breaking of bread is very important, and prayer is also important. We need to come together for prayer.
Many times church life is lacking because there is no breaking of bread and prayer. As opportunity allows, we need to take every opportunity to gather for these things. This gives us the reality of church life.
We have some time left to speak about the work. Many brothers and sisters have participated in the work. Some have accumulated many years of experience, while others may be just beginning.
Regardless of how long we have served, especially those of us who have served the Lord for many years need to be reminded even more. When we have been in the work for a long time, it can become a habit, and we forget what we are working for.
According to the revelation of Scripture, God’s work is one. God may do many things, but in principle His work is for one purpose.
In John 6, after the multitude had been fed with five loaves and two fishes, they pursued the Lord. He said:
Labor not for the food which perisheth,
but for the food which abideth unto eternal life.
They asked, “What must we do, that we may work the works of God?” The Lord replied:
This is the work of God,
that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.
They asked concerning the works of God in the plural, but the Lord answered concerning the work of God in the singular. God has one work: that we believe in the One whom He has sent.
Man’s concept is to do many things. God’s concept is that we believe in the One whom He has sent. It is not first that we do something; it is God who does the work, and His work is that we believe in His Son.
In John 5:17, the Lord said:
My Father worketh even until now, and I work.
God has been working since creation. When the Lord Jesus came, He worked, but what He did was what God was doing. He said that He could do nothing of Himself, but only what He saw the Father doing.
Then, in John 14:12, the Lord said that the works He did, His followers would also do. The Lord did the Father’s work on earth; today, we do His work. We do not do our own work.
What is the work of the Father? It is that we believe in His Son, that His Son may be Lord over all creation, fill us, gain authority in us, be glorified, and conform us to His image.
As the body matures, the Lord will come again to receive it. This is God’s work. God’s work is one, though He does many things. All the many things are for the one work: that His Son may be Lord of all and gain His one new man.
We may have many different works. Some preach the gospel, some edify believers, some visit others, and some carry out many other services. Yet we must not forget the principle of the work: the purpose of the work is one.
If our work becomes a goal in itself and is separated from God’s work, then before God it becomes wood, hay, and stubble.
For example, if we preach the gospel merely so that people will be saved, escape hell, and go to heaven, and we make that the purpose of our work, then we have missed God’s purpose.
We preach the gospel to bring people to Christ, so that in Christ they may grow and mature. As Paul says in Colossians 1, we proclaim Christ in order to present every man perfect in Christ.
Getting people saved is not the ultimate purpose. Edifying the brothers and sisters is not the center of the work either. The purpose of the work is that the work of Christ may be accomplished.
We may do many different works, but all our works must be united for the accomplishment of God’s one work. We need to ask ourselves: What are we here for? Is it merely to cause people to be saved, to understand the Bible, or to become richer in spiritual life? These are not the ultimate goal.
God’s work is to work each one of us into Christ, so that Christ may be wrought into us. This is not individualistic. It brings all the brothers and sisters together as one body, and the whole body builds itself up in love.
Once we see God’s work, we immediately realize that only God can do it. We cannot do it ourselves.
Work is the overflow of life. Therefore, we must allow the Lord to do a deeper work in us. If we do not have this deeper work of Christ, the life cannot overflow.
The richness and degree of life measure our work. According to how much of the life of Christ has been constituted in us, there will be a corresponding outward work. This is what God seeks.
Paul not only preached Christ and Him crucified; he himself served in weakness, fear, and much trembling, not with the wisdom of men but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
As we work today, we must examine ourselves. Are we working out of ourselves and bringing people to ourselves? Or is our work out of God and His life, bringing people into Christ?
We must also remember our ultimate goal as we work and serve: that God may be manifested and gain His glory. When the Son receives glory, God is satisfied.
This is not a small matter. As serving ones, we are serving the Lord and doing God’s work. This is not something we can treat lightly.
May we take every opportunity to remind ourselves and review these matters. This is our fellowship this morning.