Will you please turn to 1 Corinthians 2, the first five verses?
And I, when I came unto you, brethren, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.
For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
And my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Turn also to Revelation 1:9.
I John, your brother and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience which are in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
Revelation 1:17-18:
And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as one dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying, 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.
And Revelation 12:10-11:
And I heard a great voice in heaven, saying, Now is come the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accuseth them before our God day and night.
And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony; and they loved not their life even unto death.
Dear Lord, our hearts bow low in worship. Who in the universe loves us as You do? Even though we are the most unworthy people, yet You were willing to die for us.
Lord, our hearts are melted by Your love. We cannot keep back ourselves from giving ourselves over to You. You have redeemed us for a reason, for a purpose; and, Lord, we do desire that purpose to be fulfilled in each one of us.
It is not for ourselves, Lord; it is for You. May Your name be glorified among Your people. May Your purpose be fulfilled in all Your people, that glory may fill the universe. Glory to You. We ask in Your precious name. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters, we do thank the Lord for being so faithful to us. In the last few days, He has gathered us together before Him. That is His love.
He does not want us to meet Him with shame. He is coming soon. He wants us to meet Him with joy and glory, and that is the reason why He gave us this opportunity.
Our prayer is that what He has said to us will become reality in our lives. There is nothing more important than the eternal purpose of God.
We thank God that it pleases Him to reveal that purpose to us. We thank God that He has also shown us the way to that purpose.
Our dear brother Lance mentioned the cross and Christ. In the eternal purpose of God, God’s Son is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
He came into this world to die—not for Himself. He had no need to die, and God never dies. But He died for you and for me on Calvary’s cross.
The One who knew no sin died for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. What amazing love is this!
Our Lord went to the cross for our sake. On the cross, He accomplished the work that God had sent Him to do. He also calls us to follow Him in the way of the cross, because that is the way that will lead us to the eternal purpose of God.
The Scripture says that, by the eternal Spirit, He offered Himself spotless to God, purifying our conscience from dead works, that we may worship the living God.
It is the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who leads us to the cross; and the cross will again lead us to the Spirit. This is a universal principle.
The cross is the only way to the eternal purpose of God.
Out of the cross of our Lord Jesus comes the church. The church is His own body, and when that body is fully grown, then He will come back and take her as His bride.
The body of Christ, the church, is born out of the cross of our Lord Jesus; and it is built, matured, and completed also through the cross.
That is the reason why our Lord Jesus calls us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. If we try to avoid our cross, then we find that we are not growing into Christ.
How necessary the cross must work in our lives. It will purify us, sanctify us, and transform us.
So, dear brothers and sisters, if we love the Lord Jesus, we love the cross. We know that the cross originally was a sign of sin, shame, death, and curse.
But our Lord Jesus has transformed it into a symbol of love, peace, life, and victory. That is the reason why today we glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus.
In this concluding message, we would like to fellowship on the cross and the testimony of the church.
The church is the body of Christ. It is the fullness of Him who filleth all in all. All the riches of the Head dwell in that body, and that body is the means through which the glory of the Head is manifested.
But the church is also an instrument in the hand of God. It is an instrument for His testimony. That is why the church is sometimes described as a golden lampstand.
In Revelation 1, the apostle John was exiled to the island of Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus. There, on the Lord’s Day, he heard a loud voice behind him. When he turned, he saw a vision: seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands One like unto a Son of Man.
Before John was exiled, he had labored for the Lord in Asia Minor. But after he was exiled to that island, he was no longer able to serve the brothers and sisters whom he loved so much.
There is no wonder that, on the Lord’s Day, he may have been sitting upon a rock and facing toward Asia, thinking about the churches he had served. Yet there was nothing he could do.
It was under those circumstances that he heard a loud voice behind him. He turned, and he saw the vision.
The Lord Himself explained that the seven lampstands were the seven churches in Asia. Before God, the church is a lampstand.
What is a lampstand? A lampstand is an instrument that holds the light and lifts up the light. The lampstand is not an end in itself; it is a means to an end. The meaning of a lampstand is for the light.
Even today, people sometimes use a lampstand as an ornament. But that lampstand would cry out and say, “I have lost my purpose.”
The church does not speak of herself. Her testimony is the testimony of Jesus. Our Lord Jesus is always at the front, and the lampstand is in the background.
In Old Testament times, God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt and brought them to Himself at Mount Sinai.
He told them that if they kept His commandments, they would be His people and He would be their God. To differentiate them from all the nations as His own possession, He gave them the law, the Ten Commandments.
The Ten Commandments, in the Word of God, are also the testimony of God. So far as God is concerned, the Ten Commandments that He gave are His testimony.
No one knows God. God is the greatest mystery in the universe. We know Him only because He reveals Himself.
God revealed Himself in giving the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments speak to us of God and show us what kind of God He is.
There were two tables of stone. On one table were inscribed four commandments, and on the other, six commandments.
The first four commandments show us that God is holy. Aside from Him, there is no other God. Holiness means separation; it means that He is unique and altogether different.
God is the only true God. There is no other god, and no one is like Him. That is His holiness.
Because He is so holy, He cannot be represented by any image. He is Spirit, and we must worship Him in spirit and truth.
Because He is holy, His name should be respected. We cannot idly use His name. We must keep the Sabbath—that is, rest in His finished work.
So, in the first table of stone, He shows us that He is most holy. That is why, in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, whenever there is a vision of the glory of God, the cherubim and the living creatures cry, “Holy, holy, holy.”
He is all by Himself, above everything, and cannot be compared. He is the only One who needs to be worshipped.
The six commandments in the second table of stone are concerned with the righteousness of God. God is holy in His nature, and He is righteous in His actions.
Because He is righteous, He wants His people to be righteous. So far as God is concerned, the Ten Commandments are His testimony.
He has to testify of Himself because there is no one who can testify for Him. No one knows Him, so He has to tell us who He is and what kind of God He is.
But He gave these Ten Commandments, the law, to the redeemed people of Israel. When they received them, the testimony of God became law to them. To God, it is testimony; to the nation of Israel, it is law.
If they kept the law, they would be God’s people. If they violated the law, they would be under God’s chastisement.
The testimony of God and the vessel of that testimony were most important in Old Testament times, because the whole world did not know God. Israel, the chosen people, was supposed to be a nation belonging to God.
By keeping the law, they would testify to the whole world who God is. What a testimony that should have been!
But unfortunately, the children of Israel failed to keep the law. Because they failed, not only were they chastised, but the nations failed to know the living God.
When we come to the New Testament, we find that the testimony of God is centered in the testimony of Jesus. We may say that the testimony of God finds its fulfillment in the testimony of Jesus.
What is a testimony? A testimony is something that you have personally experienced. It is something that you have personally seen or heard.
A testimony cannot be secondhand. It cannot merely be handed down. It must be something at which you yourself were present.
Such testimony is powerful, and such testimony has power in the court.
What is the testimony of Jesus? As a matter of fact, the whole Bible is the testimony of Jesus.
You remember that after the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, two of His disciples left Jerusalem on the way to Emmaus. As they walked, they were talking with sadness and sorrow.
A man came and joined them. He asked, “What are you talking about? Why are you so sad?”
The two disciples said, “Do You not know what happened in Jerusalem? Jesus, whom we believed to be the Messiah, was crucified. He was dead, and He was buried.” All their hopes were dashed. It was the end of their life.
That man said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe! Do you not know that the Messiah must first suffer, and then be glorified?”
On the road, He opened the Old Testament to them. Beginning with the law and the prophets, He explained how all these things pointed to the Messiah: that the Messiah must suffer and then be glorified.
As they listened, their hearts burned within them. When they arrived at Emmaus, the Man seemed to be going onward, so they asked Him to stay with them.
In the evening, they sat down to break bread. He took the bread, broke it, and gave it to them. Suddenly, their eyes were opened. It was Jesus.
Then Jesus disappeared. But because they had seen Him, they had strength to return to Jerusalem. It was no longer the end; it was the beginning of their lives.
Brothers and sisters, every time we break the bread, it is the desire of my heart that my eyes may be opened and that I may see Him. It is He who breaks the bread. It is He who passes the cup. And that strengthens us to return to the original purpose of God.
In Luke 24, that same night, the two men returned to Jerusalem. The other disciples were gathered there, saying, “The Lord has appeared to Peter.”
As the two men told what had happened, the Lord Himself suddenly appeared and said, “Peace be unto you.” They were amazed.
Our Lord asked, “Have you anything to eat?” They gave Him a piece of fish and a honeycomb, and He ate before them to show that He was truly resurrected.
Then our Lord Jesus opened the whole Old Testament to them—from the law, the prophets, and the psalms—telling them all that must be fulfilled in Him: that He must suffer and then be glorified.
So, brothers and sisters, what is the testimony of Jesus? The law, the prophets, and the psalms all testify that Christ must suffer and then enter into glory.
At the beginning of the New Testament, at the beginning of the dispensation of grace, we find John the Baptist. He was the forerunner of Christ.
While he was preaching, he said, “Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Then he saw Jesus coming to be baptized.
John knew in his spirit that Jesus did not need to be baptized. He had nothing for which to repent. John said, “I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me?”
But our Lord Jesus said, “Suffer it now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.” At that particular juncture, it was the will of God that men should repent and be baptized, because the kingdom of heaven was drawing near.
Our Lord Jesus took upon Himself all our sins. He offered Himself as a substitute for us. If ever there was a Man baptized for another person, it was the Lord Jesus.
If people today try to baptize for another person, it is useless. But our Lord Jesus was baptized in our stead.
When our Lord Jesus came out of the water, something happened. The Spirit of God, like a dove, descended upon Him and abode upon Him.
Not only did our Lord Jesus see it; John saw it also. So he testified, “This is the Son of God.” John saw it personally; therefore, he testified concerning the Son of God.
Then our Lord Jesus was led by the Spirit to be tempted. After He had been tempted for forty days, He came back in the power of the Holy Spirit.
As Jesus walked by, John the Baptist saw Him and cried out, “Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!”
The next day John was with two of his disciples, and Jesus was walking by. Again John cried out, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” His two disciples left him and followed Jesus.
John the Baptist was a witness to Jesus.
There is much more. Even the heavenly Father testified concerning His own Son. According to the record of the Bible, three times heaven opened, and a voice came from heaven saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him.”
What a testimony given to our Lord Jesus!
Even when our Lord Jesus was questioned by the people, as recorded in John 8, He said, “I am the light of the world.”
The Pharisees said, “Thou bearest witness of Thyself; Thy witness is not true.”
Our Lord Jesus said, “Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true; because I know whence I came, and whither I go.”
Brothers and sisters, if we testify of ourselves, that is not true, because we do not know ourselves. But our Lord Jesus is different. He knows where He comes from, and He knows where He is going.
He comes from above. He comes from the Father. He is God, and He knows where He is going. He is going back to His Father by way of the cross.
Because He knows Himself, His testimony is trustworthy.
In Revelation 1, when John saw the vision on the island of Patmos, the Lord was so majestic and so powerful that John fell down as dead.
John the apostle was the one who knew Jesus most intimately. Among the apostles, he was one of the first to follow the Lord. He was so close to our Lord Jesus that he was known as the disciple whom Jesus loved.
During the Last Supper, John leaned upon the breast of our Lord Jesus. He knew the Lord more than anybody else. Yet, when he saw the glory of the Lord, he fell as one dead.
Of all the apostles, only John saw our Lord’s death on the cross. He was at the foot of the cross, and he could see the blood and the water coming out when the spear pierced the Lord’s side.
John knew Jesus crucified. But on the island of Patmos, when he saw the risen Christ in glory—when he saw Christ as the great High Priest in heaven—he saw something he had never seen before.
He was full of fear and fell as dead. Then our Lord laid His hand upon him and said, “Fear not.”
Then the Lord gave His own testimony: “I am the first and the last.” He is the beginning and the end. He is the Alpha and the Omega. Everything comes out of Him, and everything will return to Him.
He is God. He is God’s only begotten Son. Yet our Lord said, “I am the Living One.” He is the source of life. He is eternal life, and yet He said, “I became dead.”
He came into this world to be crucified, to die, and to be buried for our sake. But that was not the end, because He rose, overcoming death, overcoming the one who has the power of death, and overcoming everything.
He lives forevermore, and He holds the keys of death and Hades.
That is the testimony of Jesus. Brothers and sisters, let us be very clear: the testimony of Jesus is Christ crucified and glorified.
This testimony is entrusted to the church. The church is to bear the testimony of Jesus—to tell the world of Christ crucified and to tell the world of Christ glorified.
Thank God, in the days of the apostles, that was how they bore the testimony of Jesus.
We remember when Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost and gave the first gospel message. If you read carefully what he said concerning the Lord Jesus, you find Christ crucified and glorified.
Jesus was crucified, but God raised Him up. He was made both Christ and Lord. That is bearing the testimony of Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, this testimony of Jesus is entrusted to the church.
But, as we mentioned before, to bear testimony requires personal experience. If the church is to bear the testimony of Jesus, it must not only know the facts; those facts must have affected its life.
The testifier and the testimony must become one. If we bear testimony of something that happened, and it did happen, and it is real and true, but we were not there and only know about it because it was told to us, then we are a very weak witness.
The court will not accept such testimony. The fact may be true, but it cannot be established by that witness.
So, brothers and sisters, if we want to bear the testimony of Jesus, something must be done personally and deeply in us. We can even say that we must be there; we must experience it.
The cross of Christ must be something that we have experienced. It must have worked in our lives.
The glory of our Lord must be something that we have personally experienced, because His glory has touched us and we have been glorified. Then our testimony will be powerful.
The apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 2, said that he came to announce the testimony of God. When he came to Corinth, he came to announce the testimony of God, which is the testimony of Jesus.
He did not come with persuasive words or human wisdom. He was determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, because this is the very essence of the testimony of Jesus.
Then, in 2 Corinthians 4:5, he said:
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.
Paul did not come to Corinth to preach himself. He came to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
There is nothing to say about ourselves. All we preach is Jesus Christ as Lord. He is Lord; He is glorified.
When He ascended on high, God glorified Him and gave Him the name which is above every name. At that name every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God.
Brothers and sisters, this is the testimony of Jesus: Christ crucified and glorified.
But in order to bear the testimony, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:3-4:
And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
And my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
Paul, in announcing the testimony of Jesus, said, “I am in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.”
Some people say this was because of Paul’s physical condition. He had traveled through the Roman province of Galatia, where malaria was common, and perhaps he had contracted malaria. Malaria can weaken the body and cause trembling.
But, brothers and sisters, we believe there is something deeper. There is a spiritual reality here.
Paul spoke of a thorn in his flesh. That thorn made him weak. But when he was weak, then he was strong, because the Lord’s power is perfected in weakness.
Paul also said, “I am in fear.” Of whom was he afraid? Paul was a brave person. He was not afraid of the Roman Empire, nor was he afraid of the scribes and Pharisees.
He was afraid of himself. He was afraid that he himself might come forth. And he trembled at the Word of God.
We know from Isaiah that heaven is His throne and the earth is His footstool, yet He dwells with those who are of a contrite heart and who tremble at God’s Word.
Do we tremble at the Word of God? We are too brave with God’s Word. We need to tremble at His Word.
This shows that the cross has worked into one’s very being. The messenger of the cross knows what the cross is, and because of this, his testimony is powerful.
The apostle John was the same way. He was on the island of Patmos for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus.
Thank God, we have the testimony of Jesus, and this testimony has been entrusted to the church. But how much has the church fulfilled that trust?
Toward the end of the first century, John saw the vision on the island of Patmos. The Lord told John to write to the seven churches in Asia.
When you read the seven letters, you find that at the beginning of each letter the Lord gives a part of the description found in the vision of Revelation 1. In that vision, He showed who He is and what He is.
Each letter is headed by a part of that vision because no local assembly is able to bear the full testimony of Jesus. We need all the churches to join together to bear that testimony.
What was our Lord Jesus looking for in these seven churches? These seven churches are seven lampstands before God. They have been entrusted with the testimony of Jesus.
Our Lord Jesus, as the great High Priest, was there watching. He was seeking to find Himself in them.
He was not looking for their labor, their work, their knowledge, their discernment, their good works, or even their suffering. He was looking for Himself in these churches.
Could He find what He had revealed and entrusted to them? Nothing can satisfy Him except Himself, because these churches are entrusted with the testimony of Jesus.
But, brothers and sisters, of the seven churches, most had failed in their testimony. Because of this, at the end of each letter there is the word:
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh…
So far as the church in general was concerned, even toward the end of the first century the church had failed in the testimony of Jesus. But thank God, God never fails.
Out of this general declension and failure, His testimony cannot fail. It has to be borne. Therefore, He calls for overcomers in the church.
Overcomers are not super-Christians. Overcomers are normal Christians—those who are faithful to what they have been entrusted with.
To those who have been entrusted with more, more is required. But they are faithful to what the Lord has revealed to them.
Those who overcome are those who overcome the declension and the failure in the testimony. They are faithful to what our Lord has shown them—faithful to Christ crucified and glorified.
Then they will be rewarded in the kingdom.
Brothers and sisters, how about today? We have mentioned again and again that when the body of Christ, the church, is fully grown, then our Lord Jesus will come back and claim His bride.
But as we look at the church today, it seems that it is farther and farther away. If that is the case, will our Lord Jesus delay and delay forever? How can God’s purpose be fulfilled?
God’s purpose is fulfilled in the overcomers. They overcome the accuser because of the blood of the Lamb—not because they are better than anyone else.
They have their failures, but they know the blood of the Lamb. They know the cleansing of the precious blood.
They overcome because of the word of their testimony. In other words, when they testify, it is true.
When they testify that Christ was crucified, they know what the cross means because it has worked in their lives. When they say, “Jesus is Lord,” they know what it means because they are under the lordship of Christ. Their word is powerful.
They love not their soul-life even unto death. They are willing to lay down themselves. If they are not dead martyrs, they are living martyrs. They follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.
Brothers and sisters, when that is completed, God will take it as representative of the whole church.
What a responsibility we are entrusted with. We cannot afford to be careless. It is time for us to wake up.
Thank God that He has faith in us, that He is willing to entrust the testimony of Jesus to us. Can we fail Him?
May the Lord have mercy upon us. Let us pray.
Dear Lord Jesus, You have entrusted us with Yourself. You have entrusted the cross and the glory to us.
We pray that we may know Your suffering and know Your glory, that we may be faithful witnesses to You.
Make us a people who not only wait for You, but hasten Your return—not only in our prayers, but in our lives.
As we return to our various places, may we be faithful witnesses. In Your precious name, amen.