Please turn to 2 Timothy 1. We will begin with verse 8 and read through verse 12.
Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner: but suffer hardship with the gospel according to the power of God;
Who saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal,
But hath now been manifested by the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel,
Whereunto I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher;
For which cause I also suffer these things: yet I am not ashamed; for I know Him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to guard that which I have committed unto Him against that day.—2 Timothy 1:8-12
Please turn also to Acts 26, beginning with verse 9 through verse 19.
I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
And this I also did in Jerusalem: and I both shut up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were put to death, I gave my vote against them.
And punishing them oftentimes in all the synagogues, I strove to make them blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto foreign cities.
Whereupon as I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, at midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them that journeyed with me.
And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice saying unto me in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.
And I said, Who art Thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.
But arise, and stand upon thy feet: for to this end have I appeared unto thee, to appoint thee a minister and a witness both of the things wherein thou hast seen Me, and of the things wherein I will appear unto thee;
Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom I send thee,
To open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in Me.
Wherefore, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.—Acts 26:9-19
Finally, turn to Revelation 1, verses 12 and 13.
And I turned to see the voice which spake with me. And having turned I saw seven golden candlesticks;
And in the midst of the candlesticks One like unto a son of man.—Revelation 1:12-13
Dear Lord, as we gather here before Thee, we do praise and thank Thee that Thou hast given us this privilege of drawing nigh to Thee.
We thank Thee that the way to the holiest is open. We thank Thee that we may come to Thy very presence, to behold Thy beauty and to hear Thy voice.
O dear Lord, we need Thy word. Without Thy word, we are as one dead. But Thy word gives us light and gives us life. Thou wilt transform us and conform us to Thine own image.
And this we desire, not for ourselves, but for Thy testimony. So we look to Thee this morning. Come to each and every one of us, and speak to each of us a word, that we may be delivered from any darkness and be in the full light of Thy truth.
Our deepest desire is that we may be faithful to Thy testimony. We pray that Thou wouldst raise up a people today who will be faithful to Thyself, prepared and ready for Thy return, to bring back the King. We want to give Thee all the glory.
Thank God for gathering us together again this morning.
We are considering together this very important matter: what God has entrusted to His church.
I think it is the most amazing thing that God should trust man. God is able to do everything all by Himself, and whatever He has done will be perfect. But our God, who is so perfect, so able, so trustworthy, and so faithful, yet desires to trust even man.
It is not because He does not know what man is. He knows us so well, and yet He dares to trust Himself to us. It is not because of what we are; it is because of what He is.
He knows very well each and every one of us, and yet He has the faith. He believes that He is able to transform us in such a way that we may be trustworthy.
So it is the most amazing thing that God should trust us with Himself. This trust is not a small thing, nor is it a partial thing. It is as if God trusts Himself to us—totally. In other words, He gives Himself completely to us.
It is such a privilege, as well as a serious responsibility.
We have already shared concerning what that trust is. First, it is the testimony of Jesus. There is nothing more important than the testimony of Jesus, because that testimony is none other than what He is and who He is.
It is what He is in the sight of God the Father. It is all that the Father has entrusted to Him; and yet we find that He has given that testimony and entrusted it to the church, that we may be His witnesses.
We also shared a little concerning what the testimony of Jesus is. He Himself said, “I am the first and the last.” This is what He is in the sight of the Father.
He is the first. He has the preeminence in all things. Everything must begin with Him, and only that which is begun with Him is acceptable.
Brothers and sisters, this is what He is, and this is what He expects to be to us. Is He the first in our lives? Can we bear this witness—that Jesus Christ is first in our lives?
He is the One who begins our life. He is the One who begins everything in our life. This means that we honor Him as the first. He is incomparable. We cannot compare Him with anybody else. He occupies all and is in all to us.
And He is the last. He is our objective; He is our end. Everything adds up to Him, is summed up in Him, and all glory, honor, and praise return to Him.
Put another way, He is all and in all. This is what He is. He is the living One. He is life; He is resurrection and life; He is everlasting life. He ever lives, making intercession for us, and He is able to save us to the uttermost.
Because of us, He became dead. He went to the cross, bore our sins, and shed His blood for the remission of our sins. His body was broken, and His life was given to us, that we may receive life—life abundant.
But thank God, He was not kept in the tomb. On the third day, He was raised from the dead. It is life out of death, and this is the life that He gave to us.
He is all-victorious, and He holds in His hand the keys of death and Hades. Brothers and sisters, this is the testimony that He has entrusted to the church.
Therefore, we find in Scripture that those who have the testimony of Jesus not only have knowledge of it, but they live for it.
Second, the trust entrusted to us is the glad tidings—the gospel. The gospel is far more than we ever imagined. Hebrews speaks of “so great salvation.” The gospel is none other than our Lord Jesus Himself. He is the glad tidings.
We also find that the trust is the faith. It is not merely doctrine or teaching; it is the whole truth, because Christ Himself is the truth.
So, dear brothers and sisters, the church is entrusted with such a tremendous treasure. Our Lord Jesus dares to trust Himself to us.
This morning, we would like to speak on this matter of the trustee. What is a trustee? What is the trustee’s responsibility? What kind of person must a trustee be?
You know, brothers and sisters, when you make a trust, you find a man or woman of worth—a person whom you can trust—and you appoint him or her as your trustee.
The responsibility of the trustee is this: he is familiar with the trust. He knows what is being entrusted, and he will be careful to see that everything in the trust is faithfully carried out.
He has no liberty to change the trust, nor can he withhold it. He has to execute it according to the will of the person who made the trust. So a trustee is very important.
What has God entrusted, and to whom has He entrusted it? We are told that God has entrusted it to His church.
Brothers and sisters, when our Lord Jesus came into this world, we often say that He came to seek and to save the lost. That is very true, because we are the lost, and He came to find us and to save us.
But we know that the purpose of His coming into this world is more than that. He came not only to declare the Father, to show us who and what the Father is; He also came into this world to find a people to whom He could trust Himself.
What did He find? You know, it is very amazing. When you read the Gospels, you find that our Lord Jesus was faced with many people who were blind, deaf, crippled, weak, sick, and even dead.
In other words, when He came into this world to find a people suitable to Him, a people with whom He could entrust Himself, what He found was just the opposite.
So our Lord Jesus, when He came into this world, had to create a new people. He had to create a trustee.
Here you find that He came to call people—not only to call people to come and believe in Him, but to call people to be His disciples.
You know what disciple really means? A disciple is a person who is put under the master and learns of him. It is more than merely being a student. It is completely different from the modern student.
A modern student pays for education, goes to school, and tries to absorb and learn all the teaching of the professors. That is all.
But the biblical thought of discipleship is apprenticeship. In the old days, when you wanted to learn a trade, you had to find a master—one who was skillful in that thing.
What would you do? You would leave your own home and stay with your master. You would become as one of the master’s family.
If you wanted to learn to be a carpenter, the first year you were with your master, he might not even teach you anything. He would ask you to help with the home affairs.
You would have to sweep the floor, serve the master, help the family, help with the children, and do all this menial work. Sometimes you might think, “What is that for? I came to learn the trade.”
But this is very important, because an apprentice is not only learning the trade. He is learning how to be a man. He is learning from his master how to behave and how to live. This is even more important than how to work.
Gradually, the master will reveal some of his skill to you. After several years, when you graduate, you not only have the skill of the master; you also have the manner of the master.
Sometimes you find that an apprentice speaks like his master, and even the way he walks is like his master, because he has learned the master’s manner.
Brothers and sisters, while our Lord Jesus was on earth, apart from Calvary, His most important work was to call disciples. In the Gospels, you find Him continually calling disciples.
When they answered the call of discipleship, they left all and followed Him. They lived with Him; they were with Him day and night.
They not only heard His words, and they not only noticed how He worked; they watched the way He lived. Brothers and sisters, He was creating a new people—people like Himself, to whom He could trust Himself.
You know, it is very interesting. When you read John 2, you find that our Lord was in Jerusalem. At the end of the chapter, it says that many believed in Him because they had seen the signs that He did.
But strangely, the Bible says that our Lord did not commit Himself to them, because He knew what was in man.
These people believed in Him because they saw the signs that He worked. But did they really trust in Him? Our Lord, who knew the very heart of man, would not give Himself to them.
Gradually, you find that He called some disciples to Himself. For three and a half years, during His public ministry, one of the things He emphasized most was training His disciples.
During this period of training, these disciples did not understand Him. How often our Lord said one thing and they thought it was another thing. Yet our Lord was patient with them.
Even during the Last Supper, they were still arguing among themselves concerning who was the greatest. Even when our Lord said, “I am going to die,” Peter said, “I will die with You,” not knowing that he would deny the Lord three times.
Do you think these people were trustworthy? But thank God, during the last discourse, after the Last Supper, our Lord Jesus said in John 15:
But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall bear witness of Me:
And ye also bear witness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning.—John 15:26-27
Even at that time, He was gradually seeking to commit Himself to His disciples.
When our Lord was arrested, all His disciples fled, and Peter denied the Lord three times. Even when our Lord was resurrected, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus were sad and spoke about His death. They did not know about His resurrection, and when the news came, the disciples were slow to believe it.
Yet, brothers and sisters, when our Lord was raised to heaven, He gave them the commandment: wait in Jerusalem until you receive power from on high, and you will be My witnesses—from Jerusalem, through Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
The Bible tells us that when our Lord ascended, there were at one time five hundred brothers and sisters. Yet only one hundred and twenty listened to Him, returned to Jerusalem, and prayed with one accord in the upper room for ten days.
On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon them.
Brothers and sisters, what is the meaning of Pentecost? The real meaning of Pentecost is found in 1 Corinthians 12:
For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body.
—1 Corinthians 12:13
A body has many members, but though the members are many, the body is one. So also is the Christ.
It begins on the day of Pentecost, when one hundred and twenty individual believers were baptized into one body. I do not think you can find a better congregation than that congregation.
Those one hundred and twenty included the apostles, Mary, the Lord’s brethren, and many devoted believers. They were able to gather together and pray with one accord for ten days.
Yet they were only one hundred and twenty individual Christians. They were a congregation, but they were not yet a body.
When they gathered together, they were together. When they were not gathered, they each went their own way. A body is different. A body is one.
There may be many members, but each member cannot go its own way. No member can do his own work independently. They are one body, and the testimony of Jesus is entrusted to that body.
Brothers and sisters, today we are so individualistic. Everything is “I, me, myself.”
This really happened when sin entered the world. When sin entered the world, everybody became for himself. Adam was for himself: “The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree.” The woman said, “The serpent beguiled me.”
Everybody became for himself or herself. Sin not only separates us from God; it separates us from one another. We become so self-centered.
But our Lord Jesus entrusts Himself not to one individual, but to a body. Why is this so? It is because He is so rich and so abundant.
All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily. There is no one individual who has the capacity to be filled with His fullness. He requires a body to be His fullness.
That is what Ephesians 1:22-23 says:
And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,
Which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.—Ephesians 1:22-23
It takes a body to be His fullness, and it takes a body to take up the responsibility of managing His riches.
Dear brothers and sisters, I feel that probably we lack a real understanding of what the church is.
For too many of us, the most important thing is my salvation. The most important thing is, “What about me? I want to be a spiritual person. It is between the Lord and me.”
Sometimes we hear people say, “I do not care about anybody else. It is just the Lord and me.” When you hear it, it sounds very spiritual, but it is hyper-spiritual.
We need the body. The Lord needs the body. We often think of the church as something extra to us.
“I can very well be a good Christian without the church. On the contrary, sometimes I find the church makes me a bad Christian. It is much better if I shut myself in my room and be a perfect Christian.”
Dear brothers and sisters, this is not the thought of God. I have met people who withdrew themselves from fellowship and shut themselves in their own homes. They thought this was the way to spirituality.
This is not the will of God. The church is not something extra; the church is fundamental. We need to have a clear understanding of what the church is.
It is almost as important to have a clear understanding of what the church is as to have a clear understanding of what the trust is. If we do not know what the trust is, we cannot be the trustee. But the trustee itself is equally important.
May I ask a question? Do you really understand what the church is? Are you really in the fellowship of the church? Are you really a living, functioning member of the body of Christ? Where are you now?
Remember, brothers and sisters, even in 2 Timothy 1:
Who saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal.
—2 Timothy 1:9
Here we find that God has saved us. Thank God, He has saved us. But that is not the end. The verse continues: “and called us.”
He has not only saved us, but He has called us with a holy calling. That calling is according to His own purpose, and that purpose is purposed in Christ Jesus before the ages of time.
We are not only saved; we are called with a holy calling. This calling is according to God’s own purpose, and this purpose was decided before the foundation of the world.
You can see how important that purpose is. If we are saved but do not know God’s purpose, then we miss so much. We who have been saved—for what?
We are called according to God’s own purpose. God saves us in order to call us to His purpose. That purpose was decided even before the foundation of the world. It connects us with eternity.
How important is the calling! That is why, while our Lord Jesus was on earth, He called for disciples.
What is the calling? If you read Ephesians, you find that the calling calls us to be one body, because there is nothing more important to our Lord Jesus than the body.
To us, to be saved is important; but to our Lord Jesus, to answer the call is important. Only that will fulfill God’s purpose.
According to Ephesians, we are called to be the body of Christ. As we have already mentioned in Ephesians 1:23, the church is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
The body is the body of Christ, and we each are particular members of that body. We have to walk according to our calling. That is Christian life. That is to live our church life.
I cannot do without my Lord, and I cannot do without you. You cannot do without the Lord, and you cannot do without me, because we are one body.
It is in that one body that we are able to experience the riches of the Head.
We often think of our privilege: what a privilege that we can receive all the heavenly blessings in Christ Jesus. Now, if we are in the body, we receive all the fullness of God and become the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
But we have not only privilege; we also have responsibility. If we receive the privilege and do not fulfill the responsibility, then we are unfaithful to the Lord.
We need to see the body. There must be a time when the Lord opens our eyes to see that we are not merely individuals. We are members of one body, and we are members one of another. We need such revelation.
Think of the apostle Paul. Before he knew the Lord, his name was Saul. He was an extraordinary young man.
Most young men seek for the things of this world, but he was different. Even when he was young, he sought for God. But unfortunately, he was misled.
He put his whole heart into it, but he was on the wrong way, according to the tradition of the fathers. He thought Jesus was an imposter. So he tried his best to destroy all who followed the Lord Jesus.
He was zealous, but he was wrong. He thought he was doing God a service, but he was doing the greatest disservice to God.
God knew his heart, and God allowed him to go as far as he could. While he was nearing the city of Damascus, he went there to seize the believers and condemn them.
At midday, suddenly a light brighter than the midday sun shone upon him. He was smitten by that light, and in that light he heard a voice:
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.
—Acts 26:14
Saul said, “Lord, who art Thou?” In other words, “I do not know You, but one thing I realize: You are Lord. Whoever You are, You are Lord. I am no longer my own master; You are the Master.”
In that heavenly vision, he saw Jesus as his Lord. Not only was Jesus his Savior; Jesus was his Lord. Not only would Jesus save him; Jesus was his Master.
How do we know? Because his next question was, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” He had given himself completely to the Lord. He was now an obedient servant, under the Lord’s yoke, to do the Lord’s work.
Brothers and sisters, do you ever see Jesus as Lord? Is He your Savior, and that is all? He saves you, and then you can do anything you want because heaven is guaranteed?
If this is the case, you will never see the church. You will never see the body of Christ. You will not be a functioning member of the body of Christ, and God has not entrusted you with Himself.
We need a vision to see Jesus as our Lord. It finishes your life. It brings you to His feet, putting yourself at His feet and allowing Him to direct your life.
No longer live for yourself; live for Him. This is the purpose of God. Brothers and sisters, we need that.
After you have seen this, then it follows that you will see the church as the body of Christ.
On the road to Damascus, God not only showed Saul who Jesus is—that He is Lord, Lord of all—but God also showed him what the body is.
Saul was trained as a Pharisee, and he had all the logical arguments. When Jesus said, “Why do you persecute Me?” it would have been natural for him to say, “Who are You? I have never known You. How can I persecute You? You are in heaven and I am on earth. How can I do it?”
He could have argued in this way. That is logic. But his inner eyes were opened. He did not reason; immediately he saw that touching any believer is touching Christ.
When you touch a member of the body, you touch the Head. The Head and the body are one.
Brothers and sisters, do you see this? Do you have a vision of the body of Christ? That is what the church is.
The church is not an organization. The church is an organism. Christ is the Head, and the church is the body. The Head and the body are one; they cannot be separated.
All the fullness of the Head rests in the body, and all the beauty of the Head is manifested through the body. The testimony of Jesus is entrusted to His own body.
That is why, in the beginning of the book of Acts, Luke says, “I wrote the first discourse,” concerning all that Christ began both to do and to teach.
Now he writes the second discourse to continue to show how Christ continues to do and to teach.
In the Gospel of Luke, Christ does and teaches in His incarnate body. In the book of Acts, Christ continues to do and to teach in that mystical body.
So, brothers and sisters, Romans 12:1 says:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
—Romans 12:1
You know, “bodies” here is plural, because it represents each and every one of us. We all have our own bodies. Why does it say “body”? Because we live in this body and work with this body. Actually, the body represents the whole being.
It is only when we present our bodies as a living sacrifice that it follows, in Romans 12:4-5, that we do not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, because we are members of the body.
The body is one, though there are different members. In that body, you are to live your function. Here you find that in verses 4 and 5, the body is singular.
In other words, unless you present your body as a living sacrifice, you will not be able to see the one body of Christ.
When you really consecrate yourself, the Holy Spirit will transform your mind. He will enlighten your mind and make you see the body of Christ.
I feel that many today do not see the church as the body of Christ. It is not an external thing; it is not an organization. It is an inward, living reality.
It is the vessel to which Christ has committed Himself. It is a tremendous thing. Many do not see this because their bodies have not been put on the altar.
Dear brothers and sisters, especially young brothers and sisters, may I plead with you. You are not only saved, but you have been called. You are called according to God’s eternal purpose.
You have to confess Jesus as Lord and yield yourself to the altar. Then He will open your eyes to see the church, the body of Christ, and make you a living, functioning member able to take up the trust that Christ has entrusted to the church.
You know, when you turn to Revelation 1, the apostle John was exiled to the island of Patmos. For what reason? For the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus.
On the Lord’s Day, he heard a voice. Perhaps he was sitting on the rocks, facing toward Asia Minor, where were the churches among whom he had ministered before he was exiled. He must have been thinking of them and praying for them.
Then he saw the vision. What was the vision? He heard a voice, and when he turned to see the voice, he saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands One like unto a son of man.
That is the Patmos vision. He saw the seven lampstands, and it is explained to us that the lampstands are the churches.
In the sight of God, a church is a golden lampstand. Now, brothers and sisters, what is a lampstand?
A lampstand is a vessel, not only to contain the light, but to heighten and uplift the light. A lampstand is not merely a decoration; it is very practical, because a lampstand uplifts the light so that it may shine abroad.
There you find the seven churches in Asia, and in the midst of them One like unto a son of man.
Of course, this vision tells us of the heavenly ministry of our Lord Jesus. We think of the heavenly ministry of our Lord Jesus as our High Priest.
When we think of Him as our High Priest, we often think in a personal way. He ever lives, making intercession for us, and He is able to save us to the uttermost. We cannot be Christians if we do not know Him as our High Priest.
But here in Revelation, you find that the High Priest is the High Priest of the church. There He is ministering to His church.
Christ is described in detail in Revelation 1, but there is no description of the lampstands. Sometimes we can go to the other extreme: we may emphasize the church even above Christ. If you do that, you lose Christ.
Christ is in the foreground; the church is in the background. The church is not the light. The church has no teaching and no doctrine of its own. The teaching and the doctrine are Christ Himself.
The church is not a light; it is a light-bearer. Brothers and sisters, Christ is the light. He commits Himself to the lampstand so that the light may shine bright and wide.
This is the trustee. We are members of that one body.
So, brothers and sisters, what has God entrusted to the church? He has entrusted Himself to the church, because the church is the Christ. Only the Christ is able to manage the affairs of Christ.
May the Lord help us. Let us pray.
Dear Lord, we are amazed that Thou shouldst trust Thyself to us, the church.
We pray that Thou wouldst open our eyes, not only to see Thee as the trust, but also to see ourselves as Thy trustees.
Dear Lord, we want not only the privilege; we are willing to bear the responsibility.
We pray that this morning Thou wouldst give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that we may know Thee. Open our eyes, that we may understand. Draw us in, that we may glorify Thee.
We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.