Well, we have been talking about spiritual fullness as the theme for this weekend, and I think probably many of us feel pretty full already. Hard to imagine—we have a few more ministries to go. But may the Lord give us a continued hunger to know more of Him.
I went up to Toronto at the end of the summer, and they have a particular trick they play on you there. You basically eat about five meals within eight hours. I do not know what happens there, but anyway, I went to the Sunday morning meeting, and afterwards we went out to a very nice lunch. Of course, they brought all these dishes by, and of course, I ate every one.
I guess we got home at three or four in the afternoon, and I said, “Oh, that is really good.” They said, “Okay, well, at five o’clock we are going to eat.” I thought to myself, “I am just too full. There is no way I can eat.”
Well, five o’clock came around, and we drove to the place. We met the other people, and I was not hungry at all. But that first dish smelled awfully good. I found I could eat it. Then they brought a second dish that looked even better, and I ate that too. Before you knew it, they tricked me. I went through the whole seven courses again.
It is amazing what a little fragrance can do to initiate our thirst and hunger all over again. If we think that Christ wants to meet with us, speak a word to us, and allow us to experience His presence, maybe that thirst and hunger will revive us and quicken our mortal bodies for the duration of this afternoon’s meeting.
I would like to read three passages. I think you will see the connection immediately: Philippians, Colossians, and Ephesians. Let us start in Philippians, chapter 2. We want to read this great thought: “Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” We want to expand the context a little more because we want to share in this matter of spiritual fullness in the corporate expression.
Philippians 2:1-11
Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ,
if there is any consolation of love,
if there is any fellowship of the Spirit,
if any affection and compassion,
make my joy complete by being of the same mind,
maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit,
but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.
Do not merely look out for your own personal interests,
but also for the interests of others.Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,
Who, although He existed in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied Himself,
taking the form of a bondservant,
and being made in the likeness of men.Being found in appearance as a man,
He humbled Himself further by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.For this reason also, God highly exalted Him,
and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow,
of those who are in heaven and on earth, and under the earth,
and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Then we want to read in Colossians, chapter 3. Paul has been talking about the corporate dimensions of the new man, and now he makes some practical exhortations.
Colossians 3:12-17
So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved,
put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience;
bearing with one another, and forgiving each other,
whoever has a complaint against anyone;
just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.Beyond all these things put on love,
which is the perfect bond of unity.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,
to which indeed you were called in one body;
and be thankful.Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you,
with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another
with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing with thankfulness in your hearts to the Lord.Whatever you do in word or deed,
do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
Then, in Ephesians, chapter 4, beginning in verse 1. Here again is practical exhortation based on the tremendous vision of the objective corporate Christ that Paul has been displaying.
Ephesians 4:1-16
Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love,
being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.There is one body and one Spirit,
just as you were called in one hope of your calling;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all, Who is over all and through all and in all.But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
Therefore it says,
“When He ascended on high,
He led captive a host of captives,
and He gave gifts to men.”Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.
He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,
for the equipping of the saints,
for the work of ministry,
to the building up of the body of Christ;
until we all attain to the unity of the faith,
and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
to a mature man,
to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him Who is the head, even Christ, from Whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
Father, again we come to You this afternoon, standing before the Word of God, so objectively clear and practical. But we ask that the Holy Spirit would make real to us in our personal experience this matter of spiritual fullness in our corporate gathering.
Lord, we thank You that the Spirit has invested tremendous power, revelation, and patience in bringing us into such a reality. Oh Lord, help us pay attention. Quicken our mortal bodies. Give our hearts hunger to hear, to receive, and to understand. We pray together in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Last time we tried initially to focus this matter of spiritual fullness by looking at the apostle Paul and his testimony throughout his letter to the Philippians. I tried to focus upon one particular phrase: Paul was absolutely confident of the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
This was the essence of his life. His life focused around Christ: Christ, my life; for me, to live is Christ; Christ, my gain; Christ, my goal; Christ, my provision. His life more and more was centered around Christ and all that Christ was doing.
He was absolutely confident. Whether he was in jail or free and ministering about, whether a situation was in his hands or completely out of his hands, he trusted the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ to do that which needed to be done.
He was captured by Christ, and he was pursuing Christ. His testimony is clear in Philippians 3: in jail, but still running after Christ; still running, leaving things behind—leaving resentment behind, leaving failures and victories behind—and pressing on in a very personal, real pursuit and hunger after the Lord Jesus.
We saw that Paul came to something in his life at the time when the Spirit of God was divesting him of all that he formerly thought made him important. His whole Jewish heritage, his self-righteous attainments, and his whole background—the Holy Spirit began to pull it away and say, “Paul, you do not need that anymore. You need Christ.”
As he experienced this emptying process, somewhere in the midst of it he saw the great emptying of Christ Himself, Who, though He was in the form of God, did not grasp that. So why should Paul grasp being a Pharisee?
As he saw how Christ became a man, then worse, became a slave, and then worse, died the worst kind of death, he saw that Christ just kept emptying Himself and emptying Himself. As a result, now He is exalted above everything.
Paul not only saw that this was the great love of Christ; he saw the fullness of it and the glory of Christ. In his own life, he came to see something: the more I give away of my self-importance, the more I gain Christ.
The more he stopped trusting his own mental gymnastics—he was obviously a very intelligent person—the more he gained Christ. I wish I could have been there to hear his first witness in Damascus, when he got together in the synagogue. It was probably the most intellectual proving that Jesus is the Christ that you have ever heard. However, it was all from his head, pretty much.
Then, years later, to hear him witnessing on the streets in Ephesus and to see how much fuller of Christ was his testimony—less about himself, the way he used to be, what was happening to him, and even his sins. You know, this tends to be our testimony.
But Paul, later on in years, was realizing that those things were not that important to the testimony anyway. “Let me share with you: I have found a life. I have found the purpose. I have found a goal. I have found Somebody Who meets all of my needs. I found Somebody I can talk to day and night.” He started testifying of an experiential relationship to Christ.
Which testimony do you think was more powerful? Well, the Lord uses all testimony. Even as Paul said, some testify for wrong motives, and the Lord even uses that. But Paul began to see that the more he was being emptied, the more he was being poured out.
He even said to the Philippians, “Even if I am poured out as a drink offering for your sake, it is something I rejoice in.” Now that is a very unnatural place to come to. But what had happened was that a renewing of his mind brought him into this kind of thinking—this unnatural thinking: the more I lay down for Christ’s sake, the more I gain.
Paul became a testimony of spiritual fullness. My, my, what a testimony.
There he is in jail, and if I were writing a letter from jail, I would say, “First, let me tell you about the crummy-colored paint on the walls. This is bugging me. Then the rats come around at night. Then there is one guard who keeps putting his finger in my meatloaf.” There would be this and that.
Where is that in Paul’s letter to the Philippians? Where is the complaint? “My arthritis is kicking up because of the cold weather. They do not have heaters in the prison.” Do you hear anything like that?
You know what he says? He says, “I am almost drunk with the fragrant aroma of your offering. It was such sweet incense. Oh, what you gave me, what you supplied me! I am more than full. I am overflowing. I am rejoicing. Thank you, Philippians. Now let me help you in some of your circumstances. I want you to be encouraged to keep preaching the gospel.”
There is Paul. There is Christ in Paul, expressing a mind wholly given over to the Philippians.
When I first, as a young Christian, began to read statements like Paul’s—“I pray unceasingly for you”—I would sort of think, “Yeah, yeah, sure. Now that is preacher hyperbole if ever I have heard one.” Do you not think that? Especially when he says that and there are fourteen other churches he has been to and spent time with. How can you do that?
But when the mind of Christ begins to infect us, we find the strangest thing: we do not think continually about ourselves. Other people actually come into our minds and hearts. We find ourselves praying for them going down the road. Is that not true? We are walking along, and suddenly somebody’s name comes up, and we begin to pray.
Now we want to look at this matter of corporate fullness. Let me say one more thing about the individual. I was around during the charismatic movement, and I also was infected by such. I remember going to meetings, and after five or six years of circulating around, I saw the same people at all these different meetings sometimes. They were always seeking to be filled with more of the Holy Spirit.
Maybe they had two gifts, but now they wanted three. Maybe they never had one, and they were tarrying for their gifts. Whatever it was, they were obsessed with this thing of being filled with the Holy Spirit. But you could not help but feel that it was sort of for personal gratification.
Now, I was one of those people. But when I look in the book of Acts and see gifts of the Spirit being poured out and the Holy Spirit filling people, I do not see any of them sitting back and saying, “Ooh, that feels good. Let me go to another meeting where I can get that feeling.”
I saw people who were filled with the Holy Spirit for outpouring service. This tremendous emphasis upon our own self-awareness is a twentieth-century—now twenty-first-century—phenomenon. “I want the Holy Spirit. I want the self-awareness of the Holy Spirit.”
Well, let me ask you a question. What if you were filled with the Holy Spirit and never felt a thing, but when you ministered to others there was power? Now, would that satisfy you? You see what I am saying?
The reason I bring that up is because it is amazing how we can turn things to our own personal self-awareness. I sometimes wonder whether, when we say, “Oh, fill me with Christ. I want more of Christ,” we are not almost saying the same thing. “Could I have some goosebumps? Could I learn some new little thing?”
I know we love Christ. But what I am saying is, we are filled with Christ in order that we might be the outpouring of Christ. It is not something where we just become a bigger tank. As I said yesterday, now a twenty-gallon drum full of Christ, and hopefully next year, by going to nine more meetings, a twenty-five-gallon tank full of Christ.
No, no. All you need is a little supply of Christ, and then pour it out. You see that supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ coming right in and giving you more. It is the emptying that brings in the more.
We need to be careful that we do not get very selfish about this Christ we have. “Oh, no, no, no. Do not start talking to me about that. Do not jostle Christ out of me now. I have Him in my container. Everybody is like water, and I do not have a top on securely. If you jostle me, some Christ is going to fall out. Please, I need some time alone. Get the cap on my tank.”
You see, we do not gain Christ for personal profit and gratification. We are to be the fullness of Him Who fills all in all—the fullness being the full expression of Him poured out to the world, even as He fills us and fills us and fills us.
We want to move on to this corporate expression of Christ, because I do not think I need to make much of a case for it here. You realize that most of the time Paul talks about fullness, he has the corporate in view. It is not that it is not a matter for the individual, but he has the corporate view.
That very verse I just quoted from Ephesians 1 says:
The church, which is His body,
the fullness of Him Who fills all in all.
That fullness has to do with the corporate body of Christ.
Consider Colossians 2:9-10:
For in Him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.
And in Him you have been made complete.
One great thing about the King James Version is that you always know whether “you” is singular or plural. Unfortunately, in English we do not know that right away. In King James English, if it says “ye,” it is plural; if it says “thou,” it is singular.
When we read verse 10 as we sang it yesterday, I believe, it says, “And ye are complete in Him.” This fullness, this completion that he is talking about, is again a corporate matter. He says, “And you all are complete in Him.” Again, this is a plural expression.
Or consider Ephesians 4:13:
Until we all attain to the unity of the faith,
and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
to a mature man,
to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
Here again, this mature man is a corporate man. The church has become this corporate man that can express the fullness of Christ.
Even in Ephesians 3:17-19, we read:
So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;
and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be able to comprehend with all the saints
what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,
that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
All the saints have to gather to comprehend these dimensions of His love. This tremendous expression about the fullness of God is applied to the corporate. As we sit together comprehending the dimensions of Christ in His fullness, we can experience that in a corporate way.
In Ephesians 4, we have this beautiful picture of spiritual fullness in the church. There are several wonderful dimensions to this spiritual fullness which we should look at together.
The first thing we see is there in verse 13: this wonderful corporate man, this church that Paul sees, has been gathered together and established in the Lord. It is a stable community. They are not tossed about, up and down, with every wind of doctrine. There is a stability about them, and there is a maturity about them.
They have the measure of the stature—the character—of Christ. Oh, what a wonderful corporate man this is. They have lived together, prayed together, and exercised faith together. They have come to a unity of the faith: “until we all attain to the unity of the faith.”
Furthermore, as they have been joined together and built together, they have a common, practical experience of Christ. This word “knowledge of Christ” does not mean they have all attained some great doctrinal understanding of Christ. They have come to experience Christ in their assembly. They know the real Lord Jesus Christ by a personal experience together.
Later on in church history, the church tried to deal with heresies and false teachers by coming up with creeds. But this is the antidote for false teachers: the church corporately has come to the place where they know Jesus. They know what He smells like. They know what He talks like. They know His character in such a way that if somebody comes with something of another spirit, or something that is not Christ, the people know it together.
There is a discernment among them because of this wonderful knowledge they have gained walking together in Christ.
Look how it says in verse 15:
We are to grow up in all aspects into Him Who is the head, even Christ.
Wow. What a beautiful church. Look at them down there. We are looking from the heavenly viewpoint, of course. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is often up in the heavenlies. He is looking down on this corporate assembly that has come to this beautiful unity, this beautiful maturity, this beautiful experience, and this beautiful growth—a growth that is from God. They are growing up more and more in maturity. How wonderful that is.
Now we have to take our little telescopic lens and click it up one notch. It is like Google Earth. You take it up another notch, and you see the individual members moving. This causes us to worship, because we see a synchronizing. We see a coordination in the movements of the body of Christ. It is just so beautiful to see such an expression of Christ.
When we look at the members, the first thing we see is that each one has some gift given by grace.
Notice what it says in Ephesians 4:7-8:
But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
Therefore it says,
“When He ascended on high,
He led captive a host of captives,
and He gave gifts to men.”
Here is every member of the body having received by the grace of God some gift, some enabling. You know what? They are all functioning. What a blessing.
Look what it says in verse 16: it is fitted together and held together by what every joint supplies. Every joint, every bone, every muscle, every organ is functioning properly. What a beautiful coordination this is to see.
You see them in their times of fellowship. Maybe it looks something like Paul mentioned in 1 Corinthians 14: somebody has a hymn, somebody has a revelation, somebody has a prophecy, somebody has a tongue or an interpretation, somebody discerns something. Oh, there is such life there.
Especially when it is led by the Holy Spirit, it is decent and all in order—so full of life. Somebody has a need, but would you not know it? Somebody has an extra room in their house where they can stay. Somebody is sick, but there is some sister who has some gift of healing and prayer, and this person is healed.
Oh, the beauty of the body of Christ when it is coordinated and every joint supplies. Those fellowship meetings are a precious means. There are psalms and hymns, and somebody has a spiritual song inspired by the Spirit, and they sing it out. Even as our brother Alan did yesterday with his family, it is such a blessing—something that comes from God, a little expression of Who He is.
Or perhaps it is a prayer meeting. They are coming together for prayer, but it is not a prayer meeting where we list sixteen things up on the chalkboard. There is something of the burden of God in the meeting, and we pray perhaps like in Acts 4.
After John and Peter were released, they came back to the saints. They all joined together and began to worship. Somebody read a Scripture from Psalm 2:
Why did the nations rage,
and the peoples imagine a vain thing?
They had come against Christ, God’s Anointed. Then somebody else said, “Lord, You see the threats of the leaders in Jerusalem.” Somebody else said, “Lord, take note of their threats.” Somebody else prayed, “Lord, give us boldness to preach the gospel,” and the house was shaken.
Oh, what a prayer meeting. When it is directed by the Holy Spirit, when there is binding and loosing, an executive prayer, and something is done. Of course, they prayed for Aunt Nelly and this and that in there, but God heard the whole thing because it was in His life.
Oh, to be in the body where the prayer meeting is so full of life. Then to break bread together with them—well, is He there? Maybe we touched that a little bit this morning.
As we were worshiping, a prayer thought came to my heart, and I wondered, “Well, should I pray?” Then I thought, “No, these people hear me too much anyway.” Just about that time, somebody prayed basically what I wanted to say. I said, “You know, it is all coordinated.”
Even a song I wanted us to sing—somebody asked for that song. You know what I am saying? It is so wonderful to be in a place where there is some spiritual fullness when we are together in worship. Somebody is expressing my heart; somebody is expressing our love for the Lord in a way I could not think of; and then there is just the right song at the right time.
Oh, what a wonderful life in this body of Christ.
Go up one more Google Earth dimension, and we see, as we look more closely, not just this gathered assembly functioning in beautiful coordination, but some people ministering. We see little things darting out, because this is in fast speed. Why, it is these apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.
But they are not separate from the church. They are all coordinated as one with the church. These brothers are sharing things in season.
Peter came here just at the right time. It was harvest time, and he came here, and a hundred souls were saved. Then, would you not know it, Apollos came just at the right time and helped us see precious little things in the Old Testament where nobody usually digs. He was such a Bible scholar.
Then along came Paul, just at the right time, coordinated by the Spirit. One would come and plow, one would plant, one would water, one would cultivate, and one would harvest. These workers would come and go, led by the Spirit, and every time they came it would bring fullness.
We do not have one worker; we have all God’s workers, and they come according to the will of God. What a wonderful thing. They are all one together. Why is that? Because they all preach Christ. They preach Christ.
The apostles’ teaching—what is that? They spoke about Christ. Can you imagine them on Solomon’s porch? Do you think they said, “Today we want to look at the doctrine of prevenient grace,” or something like that—these big words?
No. Peter stood up there on Solomon’s porch and said, “This morning I was praying, and I thought about the time that Jesus was in our home synagogue in Capernaum, and those men tore up the roof.” He tells the story of the healing of the lame man and makes an application from it.
They preached about Christ. They laid a foundation of Christ. What they spoke was Christ as foundation, Christ as Head, and Christ as life. Those apostles were all one because they all preached Christ.
If a prophet came along, all he did was reveal some of the mysteries of Christ in His exalted state. He brought revelation to the saints, and people saw, “Wow, He is so much more than just the Man Who walked on earth. Why, He is exalted and at the right hand of the Father.”
Then the evangelists would come by and preach those simple messages—those Billy Graham messages—that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. Everybody is refreshed. Even those who have been saved want to get saved again, just because Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. It is so precious to hear an evangelist just preaching Christ—not preaching doctrine, just preaching Christ.
Then the pastors stand up. What do they do? Do they set up a discipleship program under them? No. They point people and direct them to the Good Shepherd. They get people connected. They get the lambs to begin to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd.
This pastor leads people to Christ. “Do you have a problem? Let us go together to the Lord and find out the answer.” Oh, how wonderful these shepherds build up the body by bringing people to Christ through every situation, through every problem—just showing them the Good Shepherd.
Then the teacher stands up. Maybe they teach something we would call doctrine, of course, but what they do is take that objective revelation of the apostles and prophets and make it real to us. “How can we make this real to us?” Even as our brothers shared this morning: “Let us make this objective truth subjective to us. How can we lay hold of Christ and His life?”
Those teachers share these things. My, my life. What a beautiful picture. What a beautiful church this is.
But wait. There is Somebody in this whole proceeding Whom you cannot see, but His fingerprints are all over it. Of course, it is the Holy Spirit.
How do you think the church in this full state is coordinated? Do you think some man sits over in control central and says, “Okay, let us send this guy over there. Let us take this one over here. Let us move this one. Take this guy anywhere—throw him out”?
Is this coordination that brings fullness anything that man does? Well, sometimes Paul said, “Timothy, bring that to me,” and, “I am sending Epaphroditus to you.” Paul coordinated things. But the workers always did what seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.
Maybe Paul says, “Apollos, you really should come,” but Apollos says, “I should not come right now.” They were not being directed by some kind of man’s organizational thing. There was a coordination by the Holy Spirit.
Someone came and shared just in time in your assembly. Do you remember that? Absolutely the Holy Spirit.
His coordination is even seen in the body. Why is it that one member—the little toe—in the worship meeting shares that little offering of love to the Lord, and everybody starts to weep? I heard one this morning. It just made me cry. They are so precious. It was the Holy Spirit Who arranged that.
Why does a brother ask for a song? I do not want us to get too over-spiritual here, but I am showing you a picture of the church in fullness. The Holy Spirit is just the Lord giving liberty in the church for the church to be a full expression of Christ.
We can see Christ’s love. We can see Christ’s power. We can see Christ ministering one to another. We can see Christ’s mind. This is the spiritual fullness that is meant for the church.
Beyond all of that, we turn the camera right around to the Person by our side. As we read in Ephesians 4:10:
He Who descended is Himself also He Who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.
Here we see, in light of the spiritual fullness of this mature church, could I put it this way? We see a happy Christ, able to pour out and fill all these members who are giving themselves one to another for the sake of Christ.
Christ has so much to give. He is only happy when He is unhindered in His pouring out. He sits up in the heavenlies with so much to pour out, just waiting for vessels emptying for one another—vessels who want to love one another, vessels who want to minister to one another, vessels who want to see more of Christ—and He just fills the whole thing.
Oh, what a happy Lord this is. He is filling the least member to the greatest member. They are all working together, and there is nothing divisive that cuts off the flow.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is the truth of Scripture, not a dream. Do you believe the church is that?
Perhaps the thing that changed my life in ministry was this: I was a pastor of various different groups, and I was reading books. The one that really got me was The Normal Christian Church Life, because everything I saw in there I could not refute. It all made sense analytically.
But somehow I had to see the beauty of the church in its fullness. Then the Lord said to me, “Do you believe?”
When He said, “Do you believe?” it went against all I knew by experience: the ambition of workers, the divisiveness among people, members in the body who do not contribute because they have an attitude, people who minister out of personal ambition, people who do things to cut somebody else down, and squabbling that goes on almost continually.
The Lord says, “Do you see that, or do you see the truth? This is the church that the Lord has poured His life out for.”
When I believed it, I knew I could not settle for compromise. I was in a position where I said, “Well, I see what God wants ideally, but I have never seen a church that does it. So I know every church is compromised, and I might as well just stay the pastor. I know being a pastor is not quite right in the sense that I am the head honcho and everybody says the buck stops at me, but that is just the way it is.”
I was so pragmatic. Then the Lord said, “Do you want to be pragmatic, or do you want to be what I want? Are you willing to lay down your life for Me, or lay down your life for what you think?”
There comes a time when you say, “Okay, Lord, no compromise.” It ends up costing you your career, and all that does is bring in life.
So I resigned as a reverend—the pastor. But I became the strange thing called me. I became Dana. There is a certain kind of liberty in just being Dana, because you do not have to wear somebody else’s coat—the reverend, or a denomination’s idea of what you should be. I just need to be formed by Christ.
Now, I am not at all condoning Danaism. I am a strange bird, and the Lord still has to do much work in me. But all I am saying is, do you see? Do you see what Christ has done? Do you see the church in its spiritual fullness?
Any piece of compromise prevents that fullness. He has to root it out of us. Every time workers are divided, every time there is division among workers, it is because there is too much self. Somebody is full of themselves, not full of the Lord. But every worker who stands and divides thinks he is full of Christ. So we deceive ourselves.
Every time a member does not function because of some grievance, unforgiveness, or distraction, they are robbing the body of that portion they have been given from the Lord.
Every time members share the truth, but not in love, it does not help—it hurts. So we have to learn how to keep our mouths shut until we can share truth in love.
Having shared this heavenly vision, which I absolutely believe, I think the Lord has to give us that kind of vision that looks beyond childish divisions and problems in the assembly and sees the higher reality: Christ in His fullness expressed in His body.
But how can we get practical about this? In light of the truth of the church in its fullness, its oneness, its coordination, and its overflow of Christ, how can there be Euodia and Syntyche?
We are back in Philippians, chapter 4. There are these two ladies whose Greek names mean “sweetie” and “lucky.” I know this is a bad example of women arguing in the church, and women very seldom do that, humble things that they are.
Being full of self goes beyond gender, does it not? Here we have Euodia and Syntyche, but you pick the other churches and you can pick some men. It is the same deal.
Somebody has forgotten that all their life is because of the grace and mercy of God, and they do not deserve anything. If they have a disagreement with somebody, they should let it go. Forgive the person. Or else do what they say and obey.
Let us read Philippians 4:2-3:
I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord.
Indeed, true companion, I ask you also, help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
Paul puts that urge before both names, so they both know he is urging both of them individually. We do not know what the situation was between sweetie and lucky. But let us say Euodia, since her name is mentioned first, is an older sister, and Syntyche is a younger one. Being younger, she is a little more rambunctious, and Euodia is older and more traditional.
They are working together in the gospel. Maybe they are like Bible women, going from home to home and sharing the gospel. They get into a little spat somewhere. Euodia tells Syntyche to shut up.
Now Syntyche, being younger, should obey. But this is the last straw, because Euodia has done that a whole number of times. Finally, she has had it. So Euodia starts a little Bible group in her home, and Syntyche has a Bible group in her home. They still meet together with the saints and break bread, and everything is cool.
Everything is not cool.
If workers are not united together, they cannot be coordinated by the Holy Spirit. How do we think we can stop our union with other workers and still be coordinated by the Holy Spirit? He just puts His hand back.
Euodia and Syntyche, for whatever reason, needed to empty themselves and be joined together. Paul says, “My fellow worker,” perhaps Epaphroditus who is bringing the letter, “and Clement, will you take hold of these two sisters and help them to see? They are co-workers in the noble task of preaching the gospel.”
Their responsibility and ministry in the church is so noble and important that they cannot let the strain between them be any kind of blockage to the supply and to God’s will. Help them to see that.
When we are with each other a lot, we sometimes lose perspective on how precious the other one is to the Lord. Even in gospel ministry, there needs to be recognition of the importance of everyone’s service and a refusal to belittle anybody. We need to make sure that we are walking together.
I am thinking back to India. The brothers were preaching the gospel, and they loved to preach the gospel. But the ones that got me were the sisters at the compound. About ten of them, twice a week, would take a taxi out into the center square of the city, hand out tracts and Bibles, and preach the gospel.
I was surprised to find out that they paid their own taxi fare, and these women lived on nothing, really. But they were willing to go and share together. Somehow, since this was an important ministry that they had, the brothers kind of got after them because they did not always think what the sisters did was very important. We have that kind of blind spot sometimes.
I will tell you the truth as I saw it: I think the sisters were more faithful in gospel preaching than the brothers there. But leaving that aside, there needs to be recognition of the importance of everyone’s service.
I will make my final bet on this Euodia-and-Syntyche thing and leave it alone. I bet you they were some of the best tag-team evangelists you have ever seen. Working together, they were great. Apart, they were so-so. They had that thing, you know.
Euodia, being sweetie, would share about the love of Christ. Then Syntyche would say, “Do you not know you are a sinner?” They just worked together. They were so good together.
Oh, but do you not know the enemy is always trying to split up that which God has joined together?
How are they going to come back together? Here we find this phrase, “Have the mind of Christ.” I want us to go through Philippians and look at the few passages where this phrase is mentioned.
In Philippians 4:2, where my version says, “I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord,” it actually says to have the same mind. This is the Greek word phroneō.
It is the same word as in Philippians 2:5:
Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
Have this thinking. Have this way of thinking, of emptying yourself. Many people say Paul is exhorting the saints to be humble. Certainly it is that, but it is more than that. It is being willing to empty yourself for the sake of your brother and sister.
Have this thinking in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Now he applies this right in Philippians 4:2: “Euodia, Syntyche, have the same thinking that was in Christ Jesus.”
First, of course, we find it in Philippians 2:5: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Notice two things. It says, “Let this mind,” or this thinking, “be in yourselves”—plural. He is implying that this kind of thinking, this self-emptying and loss-of-self-ambition, should be the experience of the assembly together.
Let this thinking be in yourselves, as was also in Christ Jesus.
But go back to Philippians 1:6-7. Paul says:
For I am confident of this very thing,
that He Who began a good work in you
will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
For it is only right for me to feel this way about you,
because I have you in my heart.
The word translated “feel this way” is phroneō. “It is only right that I have this thinking about you because I have you in my heart.” Do you see the kind of thinking he is referring to?
Then in Philippians 2:2, as he makes his appeal for harmony among Christians, he says:
Make my joy complete by being of the same mind,
maintaining the same love,
united in spirit,
intent on one purpose.
That is the same word once again.
Then in Philippians 3:15, after sharing about his own spiritual pursuit of Christ, he says:
Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude;
and if in anything you have a different attitude,
God will reveal that also to you.
Then in Philippians 4:2, he urges Euodia and Syntyche to have the same thinking in the Lord. In Philippians 4:10, Paul says:
I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity.
It is that same selfless thinking: “How can I help Paul?” It had been revived, and Paul was mentioning it.
The one time it is mentioned negatively is in Philippians 3:19, where it speaks about the circumcision party:
Whose end is destruction,
whose god is their appetite,
and whose glory is in their shame,
who set their minds on earthly things.
Here again, it is “whose thinking is on earthly things.” This is the same word used in Romans concerning setting the mind on the Spirit or setting the mind on the flesh. It is the same word used in Colossians 3: “Set your mind on things above.”
There is a mind, there is a thinking, that the life of Christ can indeed bring into us. This thinking is a selfless thinking. It is unnatural to us. But you will find in your spirit a thinking that desires to give away, desires to let go, and desires to be empty for the sake of others. This has been put there by Christ Himself. This is the thinking of Christ.
When we see this thinking, we have to define it by going back to these passages. We do not have time to look at them in their fullness, but let us look at Philippians 2. We began by reading passages in Philippians, Ephesians, and Colossians that were all exhortative, practical passages, all having to do with what it means to have this kind of selfless thinking.
Philippians 2:1-4 says:
Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ,
if there is any consolation of love,
if there is any fellowship of the Spirit,
if any affection and compassion,
make my joy complete by being of the same mind,
maintaining the same love,
united in spirit,
intent on one purpose.Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit,
but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;
do not merely look out for your own personal interests,
but also for the interests of others.
You remember later in Philippians 2, when Paul talks about Timothy. In verse 20, after saying, “I am hoping to send Timothy to you,” he says:
For I have no one else of kindred spirit
who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare.
For they all seek after their own interests,
not those of Christ Jesus.
But you know of Timothy’s proven worth,
that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel
like a child serving his father.
Timothy is so precious because he has that same concern for others, whereas Paul has to admit there are many workers who think of nothing except their own interests.
So, speaking to the whole church, Paul says, “Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” Have you discovered in your prayer that when you truly lay hold of concerns and burdens the Lord puts upon you for others, the Lord often takes care of your own needs?
It is like one of those back-door vacuum responses.
When we come together for a prayer meeting, and we assemble corporately for prayer, sometimes the Lord has things for us to take up that have nothing to do with the size of our group or our own welfare. It may have something altogether to do with this Harvey Cedars conference.
You give a good half hour praying for the conference here at Harvey Cedars, and it may seem as though it is doing nothing for your assembly. But, oh yes, it is, because you are praying what the Lord wants you to pray. Your interests are for the interests of others, and the Lord knows your needs before you even ask.
Sometimes I feel our best prayers are when we frankly spend much of our time praying for others, and then we just say, “Oh Lord, You know what I need. Amen.” And He does.
But sometimes our prayers are almost the desperate scratchings of self-seeking people. We need to come to our prayer meetings with this mind in us—this fuller mind.
Paul exhorts the same thing in Ephesians. In the first verses of Ephesians 4, he talks about the same lowliness and humility. Then he puts together the experience they should have in their calling with the objective reality of the oneness within the Godhead:
There is one body and one Spirit,
one hope of your calling,
one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all.
Those seven onenesses mean we should be one together. He connects this mindset with the oneness within God’s work itself.
Then in Colossians, we read again this passage about loving one another, forgiving one another, bearing with one another, and being humble with one another. Then he applies it to assembly life: with all wisdom, admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; speaking to one another in the Lord; giving thanks for all things.
This mind translates into life. This mind that thinks of others translates into life, edification, and building up in the assembly. How we need to have this mind. It is very practical.
Here is the fact: if we know the Lord, if we are born of Christ, we have that mind within us, within our spirit. We have to learn to lay down our own self-centeredness, self-concerns, and self-interests. Oh, how the cross has to do work in our lives.
I do not think Paul gave it up easily. I do not think we can give it up easily. But I think the Spirit is faithful to apply the cross to our lives and to show us that our self-interest is a dead-end street.
When we are full of self, we are in trouble. The more we find that we have the thinking of Jesus and are willing to lay down our ambition, the more we will experience life.
This is true in assembly life, whether it is the young people working together. Young people have a lot of heebie-jeebies, and so there are a lot of disputes and arguments—the older ones telling the younger ones to shut up, and all that kind of stuff.
But if you are going to be part of what God is doing in a coordinated way, you have to learn how to submit, how to go along with what the older ones or the ones in charge are saying, even when it may be wrong. You need to be willing to lay down your own selfish interests, ambitions, and rights.
“I know what is right. You are not doing what is right.” Why do you not lay it down?
I remember one time I was part of an assembly, and there were many things going on, many things to do. They said, “Dana, would you hold a young people’s meeting in the assembly?” I thought, “Oh, that is all I need—something else.”
But they kind of twisted my arm, and I said, “Well, okay, I need to do it. Obviously they think it is important.” We had the most blessed year that year. So many young people came. So many got saved. It was a wonderful thing.
I have to truly say it was none of my doing. I did not want to be any part of it. That was one of the first young people’s meetings I ever did in any assembly. I did not want to be gifted with young people. I wanted to be an old person. I wanted to gray prematurely and be a regular saint.
But for years now, as you know, I have been locked in the basement with the kids. Maybe you think, “Oh, well, it is because he loves being with the kids. He just loves it.” Well, I have gotten to the place where I love to die on it because there is such life there.
The kids are so precious, but I still have to deny myself when it comes to doing things. So many times the Lord asks us to empty ourselves in something we do not think we want to do. As soon as we do that, because the Lord honors it, there is life.
There are so many opportunities—big opportunities and little opportunities.
I think there is a sister here, so I will not mention her name and embarrass her. Occasionally we go out in Queens and preach the gospel. It is so wonderful because fifteen or so saints from the assembly go out there, hand out tracts, preach, and take turns.
One person preaches in Chinese, somebody in English, somebody in Portuguese, and we sing songs in between. Sometimes the songs are good, sometimes the preaching is terrible, but we are out there together. It is a wonderful experience. It is wonderful to have fifteen other people willing to go and do that with you.
There was one sister who was gladly handing out tracts. I said to her, as we were nearing the end of one of our times, “Would you be willing to share your testimony?” “Oh, no, I could never do it. I have got nothing to say. What could I possibly—”
But I could tell she was caught. So she thought about it. A little later, after somebody else had shared, I asked her, “Well, my sister, we are almost getting ready to close. Are you willing to share?” “Well, I do not know if I can do it. What is going to happen?”
Finally, she gave up on herself. She said, “Okay, I will do it.” Now, of course, I was at a disadvantage because she spoke for ten minutes in Chinese. I have no idea what she said.
But she stood there under an anointing from God. Some Chinese young people were standing around by the library, talking to one another and chattering, but they stopped and listened to every word she said. They did not listen to me. I even tried to sing some silly songs. They did not listen. Other people listened to this and that, but she had these girls right in her radar.
She gave, I think, a very good testimony. The blessing was to see her afterwards. She was full of Christ. “Ah, it is so wonderful. I cannot believe I had anything to say.” I mean, she actually spoke too long.
Oh, how wonderful it is when we are willing to deny ourselves. But the Lord has to work on us. The Lord has to empty us.
One of the great tragedies in the assemblies, when we have been together for a while, is when people become offended with one another. This is something that happens. Yet I want to say this: if you have seen Christ in your brother and sister, and they have been faithful and laid down their life for many years, and then they do something that offends you, cannot you forgive?
Do you not respect who they are in the Lord?
I know the problem. When you are married for a long time, you love your spouse more than you ever did at the beginning, but you could leave them faster than ever before. They really get on your nerves.
But how can you not love your spouse who has been with you for years, who has been with you through thick and thin, and when you were nasty, they stayed? You cannot leave. You have to forgive and be one, and learn to love despite those things that are irking you after so many years.
It is the same way in the assembly. How can we take offense at somebody who was a blessing to us for years? I just do not understand that. What is the capacity in us that is so short that we have no history of trust?
Even if somebody has done something wrong, cannot we recover them, pray for them, and stand with them? Is it so easy to cast off those who have given their lives, served, and cared?
Oh, how we need this mind of Christ in our life, because God is after a spiritual fullness that is even larger than your assembly, wherever you gather. The Lord is after something so large. His love He wants to pour out in new and fuller dimensions into the world. How He loves. How He wants fullness. He wants to coordinate by His Spirit even matters larger than just the assembly.
It is a real blessing to come to Harvey Cedars. You know why? Because there is no human agenda really in this thing. The Lord gathered us together many years ago and seems to be desiring to do that, at least for this year. We do not know about next year.
But man’s agenda can get into something, and suddenly the preciousness and largeness of something is lost. Oh, may that not happen here.
When we come together like this, we are able to touch a certain fullness. We have people from different assemblies. We had people praying this morning, and I did not even know who they were. It is a wonderful thing, is it not? There is such a largeness to Christ.
Perhaps you are here visiting, and you do not know who is from South Jersey. Well, praise God, you do not know who they are. But they are brothers and sisters here. Many of them have sacrificed a lot of time and hours to prepare and organize our conference together.
This is not a conference about a fellowship growing or gaining more members or advertising something. No, no, no. There is a burden for Christ to be shown in His fullness to hungry people.
Some people are here from no big assembly, or maybe from just some little church in the community, but they have hunger, and that is why this is here. The Lord cares for many saints beyond us. Do you believe that?
I love these kinds of testimonies. I love people who go to work and, at lunchtime once a week, lead a Bible study. For some people, they are a virtual lifeline. There are Christians out there who love the Lord, but they have only this much light and only this much fullness. They have heard so little at their own little church, but they go to a Bible study, and they are so thirsty. You are the lifeline.
Oh, pour yourself out in those little Bible studies at work, those little contacts you have with Christians beyond your own assembly. You know the Lord.
Our spiritual fullness, ultimately, is connected with all the saints. Even if we have a blessed fullness within our assembly, with the picture I shared in Ephesians 4, we still do not have it all yet because we are connected to our dear brothers and sisters beyond this. Some of them are so hungry.
Do you not think the Lord wants them to receive those rivers of living water and come and receive that Spirit? The Lord has such big and precious things. We need to learn how to share these riches, and we need to share the riches of our brothers with one another.
It is a precious thing to have some brothers from here go over and visit this assembly, and some brothers from there go over and visit that assembly—the cross-pollination of these bees. Is that not a blessing? Is that not a fullness to us?
Let us be careful not to humanly coordinate that thing, but it is wonderful if we can share that kind of fullness one with another.
One of the joys of going to young people’s conferences, like in Toronto or Flushing, is that young people from here, there, and everywhere get together. They experience some kind of fullness: “Wow, it is more than just me and Charlie in the fellowship. There are other teenagers who love the Lord.”
They experience a fullness that touches them and helps them get on as they go back to school. Oh, the Lord wants to do big things, and He wants to express His spiritual fullness even beyond the borders as we presently understand them.
Despite our own weaknesses in the assemblies and everything, it is wonderful for me to see that I think the Lord is raising up some young people today who are very precious. I really pray that they can see spiritual fullness and settle for nothing less.
I pray that they can minister not out of personal ambition, status, or ministry, but out of a willingness to empty themselves in order to build up and help others; that they could have that mind of Christ in them as the Lord begins to work in them; and that they could learn spiritual coordination, doing things in God’s time and in God’s way.
All of that is learned as we join together in the assembly to express that fullness. It is a precious thing that God has called us together to be coordinated by the Spirit as our Lord fills us with all things.
I just love that expression. What is it? It is almost like circular logic, is it not?
The church, which is His body,
the fullness of Him Who fills all things.
You just cannot get away from it.
We want to be His fullness. “Oh Lord, how can we serve You? How can we help You? How can we help Your people? Lord, help us to pour out ourselves for their sake.”
Then here is the Lord pouring Himself on top of you, pouring it out on you, pouring it out on you. He fills all things, and we are to be His fullness. By the grace of God, we are just part of the whole chain of His life that He is pouring out in these days.
There is a corporate fullness which we experience at various times, I think even here this weekend in some small degree.
May the Lord convict us of our need to empty ourselves and claim nothing for ourselves. It is so hard for people who have a certain status—responsible brothers, leaders, workers, all this kind of thing—to be willing to let go of that.
Be a brother. Be a sister. Be a contributor. Be somebody who is willing to lay down their life for one another. When we empty ourselves, we experience life—fullness of life that comes from His throne.
May the Lord help us to live in fullness according to the vision He has given us in the Word of God. Let us pray.
Lord, You are full; we are empty. You are the source; we are just a channel. But Lord, we thank You that when we gather together, Your Spirit begins to move and begins to synchronize us together in something so rich and precious that young and old can taste and see that the Lord is good.
We pray that this fullness would be known more completely in our local assemblies, and that we can learn how to spill over beyond our assemblies with an expression of Your fullness that is rich in us to give away to those who are hurting, broken, sick, hungry, and thirsty.
Oh Lord, let Your fullness be fully expressed in our lives. Lord, we come to You. All we can do is bring these little channels and empty ourselves of any pride that stands in the way.
Lord, we pray for anybody in this room who has an issue with somebody else in their assembly, and they are hiding it, going around it, going underneath it, but it just will not go away. Oh Lord, bring us into that kind of unity that You can again begin to coordinate our lives by Your Spirit.
Oh, how You treasure this unity of the Spirit that You have given us by Your death and resurrection. Help us to live in that fullness as You bring us to the unity of the faith.
Lord, this is Your way in our lives. We acknowledge that Your Holy Spirit has been given to us to do these things. We say, “Thy will be done. Have Your fullness. Oh Lord, let it be.”
When we gather together, two or three, it is not an issue of numbers but an issue of emptiness. You can express Yourself through us. Lord, make it real in our own local place, we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.