Good afternoon, brothers and sisters. It is amazing that we have gathered together in this conference to serve the Lord.
We are gathered this day from many places. I am from New York. My brother is from Seattle, Washington, and many of you come from different places around the world.
We are here with a desire to serve the Lord. Some are servants of the Lord and elder servants of the Lord, with much to share; and toward the back, we have some who are very young and desire to serve the Lord.
It is our privilege, having been saved by grace, to serve the Lord all our days.
We would like to turn to some passages this afternoon, beginning in John 13, verse 31.
Therefore, when Judas had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him.
If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately.
Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, where are You going?”
Jesus answered, “Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.”
Peter said to Him, “Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You.”
Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times.”
“Let not your heart be troubled; believe into God, believe also into Me.
In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.
If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.”Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going. How do we know the way?”
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
And then, in the same chapter, John 14:27-29:
“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.
You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe.”
And then just a few verses from Acts 18, beginning in verse 24:
Now a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures.
This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John.
And he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
Let us pray.
Our Father, we do come to You in this conference on service. We are so thankful that You have given us the Lord Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the life.
We know that You have also given us Your Holy Spirit. We pray that the Spirit of God will quicken our bodies, our minds, and our hearts this afternoon.
Teach us the way, that we may please You in every aspect of our service. We depend upon the Holy Spirit to teach us the way more accurately.
So we gather before You with open hearts. We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
As we gather together for this week, I thought of Apollos, this Jewish preacher. He was strong in the Word of God, and he had been instructed in the way of the Lord.
He was a faithful servant of God, and he went through synagogues speaking. But there in Ephesus, he met Aquila and Priscilla.
When they heard their servant Apollos speaking, they had some fellowship with him, and they shared with him the way of the Lord more accurately.
Now this is our heart as we gather together in these days. We all desire to serve the Lord and to know the Lord’s way more accurately.
We are speaking upon this theme from John 14. It is a very unique passage.
John, as an older servant, is sharing the gospel through this book of John. He shares as an eyewitness of the things he had seen Jesus say and do, that those who read might believe in the Son of God.
But his gospel has a second purpose as well. The Christian life has a transcendent quality to it. The Christian life is lived in a heavenly way.
As John examines the church as an elder servant, he sees that much work has been done and that there are many servants in the ways of the Lord. This is a good thing.
Yet John is burdened to recover that which has been lost. As servants of the Lord, we may know the ways of the Lord. We may have been instructed by example and through others who have gone before us. Yet it is possible to serve and still not know the way.
I hope that we can stand with our brother Thomas today and picture our lives in this disciple who said, “I do not know the way.”
In John 14:5, Thomas said, “Lord, we do not know where You are going. How do we know the way?”
Indeed, the disciples were at a very strategic moment in their history. When Jesus announced that He was going to leave them, it was as if they had come to the end of their way.
But they were standing, in fact, on the eve of an epic, changing event through the life of Jesus Christ. As these disciples stood there asking Jesus questions about the way, within hours and days a whole new and living way would be opened for all mankind.
They were on the before side of Calvary. The heavenly way had not yet been opened.
Soon Jesus would die on the cross. He would be buried and raised again. He would ascend into heaven, and on the day of Pentecost, a new and living way would be opened before the disciples.
The Lord Jesus Christ would be glorified and put into the center, on His throne, in all of God’s purpose. This was a tremendous moment.
We are so thankful that the apostle John records this moment for us. As we stand there in this moment, there is a great contrast between Jesus and His disciples.
Jesus has a composure and confidence about Him that comes from knowing His way.
If you look in John 13, verse 1, you will see the basis of Jesus’ confidence:
Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
And then again in verse 3:
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God.
Jesus stood there on the eve of Calvary with confidence and peace. How could He stand so peacefully, even talking lovingly to His disciples as “My little children”? It was because He knew His beginning, and He knew His end.
He said to His disciples, “I am going to the Father. The hour of My glory has come. I will glorify Him, and He will glorify Me. But in order to go to glory, I must leave you.”
We know that our Lord Jesus, soon after this, went to the garden of Gethsemane. There He wrestled with great sweat about the matter of going to the cross. But John reminds us here of His divine serenity just before Calvary.
In contrast, we see the disciples. They are anxious. They are fearful. They are filled with questions.
John makes this moment very human by mentioning four disciples by name who were standing there: Peter, Thomas, Philip, and Judas—not Iscariot. They were asking questions, anxious and fearful, not knowing what was going to happen.
Here were disciples who had been instructed in the ways of the Lord. They had followed the Lord for a few years, and yet when they came to this moment, they did not know the way.
It seemed that their way had ended. But, as we know, their way had really only begun.
To me, this is a very instructive picture for the servant of God. As we serve the Lord and are instructed in His ways, we come up against this question: Do we understand the way?
I am one such servant. I served in a denomination. I went to seminary and trained to be a minister. I learned the ways of the denomination and the ways of the Lord.
But for ten years, I served the Lord and did not know the way. Now I know the Lord Jesus, and He is the way; but I did not know the way.
I ask this question of you. Are you faithfully serving—whether preaching the Word, traveling, teaching a Sunday school class, or serving in various ways? Of course, we learn the ways of the Lord. But do we know the way?
Thomas says, “How can we know the way?” Let us go back for a few moments and think about the ways in which the disciples were instructed as they walked with the Lord Jesus.
First, we know that the disciples were called. Everyone is called to be a servant. These men left their nets or their tax booths, and they began to follow the Lord Jesus.
They watched Him teach. They saw Him perform miracles. They saw Him cast out demons. They saw Him love the unlovely.
How they were captured by this Master. What a beautiful Master He was. He was the servant of the Lord, and by watching Him, they were learning the ways of the Lord.
Of course, they came to the moment on the mountain when it was revealed to them who Jesus was. He was the Messiah, the Son of the living God. What a tremendous calling they had: to follow the Messiah, the Son of the living God.
Then, after a period of time, these disciples were chosen. Jesus specifically chose these twelve, and He sent them out two by two to preach and minister the kingdom of God.
He gave them authority. He told them to preach the kingdom, and they went out and served. They obeyed their Master.
But I ask you the question: How did they serve? They did not have much experience, but they had been watching the Lord Jesus. So when they went out to preach, for the most part, they imitated their Lord.
They remembered things that the Lord had said when He preached the gospel, and they spoke those same words. They even imitated the way Jesus laid hands on people to pray for healing.
Even as they were casting out demons, perhaps they used the voice the Lord Jesus used when He cast out evil spirits. They imitated their Lord.
Because they obeyed, the Lord granted them ministry and success.
We have it recorded in the Gospels that when the disciples came back from their first ministry journey, they were surprised: “Even the demons listen to us.”
All they were doing was imitating, but the Lord was so real that they had an impact in the towns they visited. As servants of God, they were brimming over with confidence.
Is this not a picture, in some measure, of you and me as servants? The Lord asks us as well to preach the gospel and serve Him. How do we do it? We usually imitate somebody.
Maybe we hear a gospel preacher, and we really like him, so we practice his style. Maybe we read some servant’s book, and it is very good, so we preach from the book. We observe somebody’s method of ministry and copy that method.
I do not know if you have been that way, but I have been an imitator. When I was going to seminary, I had to preach three times a week in the church I was pastoring.
Actually, I had only been a Christian three years, so I did not know the Bible very well. Three times a week was too much.
But at the school where I was studying, they had a library full of sermons: sermons by C. H. Spurgeon, F. B. Meyer, and G. Campbell Morgan.
I would read their sermons. I would copy their notes. I would give them on Sunday and Wednesday. They might hear me by sound, except I would be speaking.
But, you know, I was trying to obey the Lord. I was learning some of His ways, and the Lord really blessed. All I was doing was imitating.
I had, actually, a very shallow spiritual life. But the Lord stood by me.
Is that the way you are? Are you an imitating servant? Are you copying somebody? I think it pretty much begins that way.
But we notice in the Gospels that Jesus begins to take His disciples deeper in the school of Christ, because the basis of our ministry cannot be outward imitation and methods.
The Lord began to deal with His disciples, to show them their shallowness. Jesus was leading them deeper. He had to undermine their self-confidence and expose their shallowness and weakness.
A point came in His ministry when He began to correct and challenge His disciples. You all know the stories. Let me mention a few incidents.
You remember when Jesus was speaking to the multitude, and they had been there a long time. Jesus turned to His disciples and said, “Now feed this multitude.”
The disciples were imitators. They did not have anything to feed these multitudes. The disciples said, “No, no, no. Send them home. We do not have anything.”
But they had no idea of the invisible storehouse of God’s provision when we are serving the Lord. They learned such a lesson that day.
Jesus said, “What do you have?” They said, “Well, a couple of loaves, a couple of fish.” The Lord broke it, blessed it, and fed the multitudes from His storehouse in heaven.
As servants, we come to moments when we do not have what is necessary to minister to people. Have we learned this lesson? The Lord asks, “What do you have?” Then He says, “Let Me break it and bless it, and I will feed.”
Immediately after the feeding of the multitude, Jesus and the disciples got into a boat. These men were very confident about their faith.
But as they began to row to the other side, a great storm came up, and the boat began to sink. Suddenly it was exposed how shallow their faith was.
Immediately their faith went down into the water. Fear took its place, and they became afraid. They woke Him up and said, “Lord, Lord, do You not care that we are drowning?”
They had so little faith. That day, the Lord stood up and said, “Peace,” and the sea calmed down.
What did the disciples see? They were amazed because the Lord had such great faith, and they had no faith. Oh, how we have to learn these lessons.
You remember the Lord took Peter, James, and John up onto the mountain, and there Jesus was transformed into glory. These three disciples were privileged to see the Lord transformed in glory.
But that story is always put together with what happened when they got down into the valley. There was a demon-possessed boy, and the father of the boy was asking the disciples, “Please help.”
But they could not help. Jesus, with one word, healed the boy. Again, they came to Jesus afterward and said, “Why could we not do that?”
Jesus said, “You do not have a spiritual life. You are not prepared by prayer and fasting for such occasions as this.”
The confidence of the disciples was being undermined as they saw how weak their basis was. But the more they saw their weakness, the more they saw the Lord’s greatness and power.
Those disciples had so much to learn in the ways of the Lord. When it was revealed to Peter that Jesus was the Christ, they also came up against a great weakness.
The disciples did not understand that the way of the Lord was the way of the cross. Peter was concerned about preserving Jesus’ life. Peter knew nothing of the fact that Jesus had come to die.
As we serve the Lord, this has to be one of the most difficult lessons for us: the way of the Lord is the way of the cross.
It is no wonder that when we come to John 14, the disciples are standing there after their self-confidence has been undermined for months by the exposure of their weakness.
They had come to the place where they realized how often their spiritual judgments were wrong. As they saw the greatness of their Lord, they desired to follow Him with all their hearts.
They would simply follow the Lord. “Whatever the Lord tells me to do, I will do. I will not try to figure anything out. I will just obey my Lord.”
They had no confidence in themselves, but all confidence in their Lord. They would just follow Him. Then Jesus said, “Now I am going away.”
No wonder Thomas felt so helpless. “Where are You going? We do not know the way. Our only hope as servants is to have You tell us what to do. What will we do now?”
Nobody to imitate. Suppose something happens that we never saw You take care of.
Behind Thomas’s anguish, I hope you hear how much Thomas loved Jesus. In his questions, there was desperation: “Jesus, please do not go away.”
They had come to the end of their way. They had been serving according to the ways of the Lord, but now all the outward things were being removed. Even the Lord Himself was going away. What would they do?
Once again, brothers and sisters, I think this is a picture of us as servants of God. However we begin to serve the Lord, if we serve with a good heart, the Lord begins to undo our confidence.
We can only imitate and use outward methods in ministry for so long. The Lord must take them away.
Those who serve the Lord are so insecure. Servants of the Lord are always looking for a blueprint, a method, a strategy.
I live in New York City, and I go to a monthly prayer meeting of servants. We are praying for God to revive New York City and save those who are lost.
Every month, perhaps two hundred ministers come together for this time of prayer. After we pray, we eat lunch together. Even though they are not Chinese, they always eat after the prayer meeting.
As they sit at the table and eat, you should hear the conversation. It is all about a new method somebody found to reach the lost, a new strategy, a new technique.
“Oh, I have thirty more people coming to our meeting now because we bought a bus. We go out, get people on the bus, and bring them.” Another minister says, “Okay, I must get a bus.”
You know, we are always looking for some outward way. You can understand why Thomas was looking for some kind of outward way.
The fact of the matter is that we, as servants of God, have a great advantage over Thomas and the disciples at that moment.
The way could not be understood by the disciples until Jesus had gone to the cross, been raised again, ascended, and been seated at the right hand of the Father.
As servants of Christ, we have a great advantage. We know that Jesus is enthroned at the right hand of the Father. We know that Jesus is the way to salvation.
We know that His precious blood has opened a new and living way for all of us. The Holy Spirit has been poured out upon us to preach the gospel to the world.
We even know, in our own lives, the transforming work of the new creation that is going on. Every Christian knows that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
Yet we have learned something from church history regarding serving the Lord in the reality of Christ—the way, the truth, and the life.
Even though the way has been opened to us through Calvary and the resurrection, through church history we realize that the way always needs recovery.
Servants of God who are serving in the ways of the Lord can lose the way. The whole life of the church of Jesus Christ, though living in the ways of the Lord, can lose the way.
We may be walking on the way, but with time we begin to come to a plateau. We lose the aspect of the upward, heavenly calling.
Our first love turns into duty. The light that we received becomes teaching. The life that we experienced together becomes tradition. We find ourselves in an outward way.
Along the way, we have placed many road signs about how to be a Christian and how to serve the Lord. We find ways, practices, scriptural truths, and signposts along the way.
But how is it possible to serve the Lord in the ways of the Lord and yet lose the way?
I mentioned that I went to a school that specifically told me the way to minister: “This is the way you preach the gospel. This is the way you break bread. This is how you counsel people. Here is a plan to build the church.”
They even gave a course in my school on church architecture: “Here are different building plans for your church.”
Like many of God’s servants, I was serving along in the ways of the Lord, but I did not know the way.
Then something happened to me. This happened a number of years ago, but I met our dear brother Stephen Kong. I would go to meetings where he taught the Bible.
Even then, I was pastor of a church and serving by the ways of the Lord in which I had been instructed. But as I began to listen to our brother, one day I saw the way.
When I saw the way, all the ways in which I had been serving had to be reexamined. The ways of our service need always to be examined in the light of the way.
Here is what I say: those who know the ways of the Lord can lose the way. But those who discover the way rediscover the ways.
What is this, the way? We learn from church history that whenever the way is recovered, there are two characteristics of that recovery.
When the way is recovered, the beginning and the end are reconnected to the way.
When there is recovery, those who have recovered the way feel that everything they are doing is original, fresh, new, and filled with light.
At the same time, those who are in recovery feel that they have been connected to the end—to God’s purpose, to the goal, and to the glory.
You see what happens. Along the way, we get disconnected from the beginning and from the end.
When Jesus said to Thomas, “I am the way,” there was a new beginning and a new understanding of the end in His Father.
“I am” is a statement without tense. There is no past, present, or future. It is now.
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” Thomas met the living God when Jesus said, “I am.”
Whenever you meet “I am,” you have met the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Suddenly, the way is clear.
The way is something much more than merely the way to salvation. Jesus is the way, and the only way to the Father and salvation. But the way is more than that.
The way is more than methods of service. The way is more than merely the church life. The way is more than merely the Christian life.
“I am” is the way. The “I am” is life itself. It is more than merely our personal Christian life: “For me to live is Christ.” It is more than merely the church. Christ is the way of the church.
Christ is the epic, changing way for us.
The burden on John’s heart is that we, as servants, might rediscover, “I am the way.” But we must come to the place where we honestly say, “Lord, I do not know the way forward.”
To those who come like Thomas, He would say, “I am the way.” How we thank God for those vessels in history who recovered a way because they met the living God in Jesus.
I am sure all of you know of our dear brother Sparks from England. He was a servant of God in the Baptist church, and then he saw Christ preeminent over all. His life was changed.
He began to live and speak on resurrection ground that the church had lost in history. Even today, when we read his works, we can see how large is this Christ who is the way.
Perhaps you have heard of dear brother Bak Singh, a precious servant of God in India. In the last century, he recovered the way among the Indians.
Thousands of Indians were saved, and churches were established according to the way. He was indeed a servant of God who saw the end and the beginning in his God.
Of course, in this last century, we have all known of our brother Nee. The church in China was basically a Western device, but the Lord opened the eyes of brothers and sisters in China to the way—to the “I am.”
They saw the beginning and the end and the way as it was. These were great moments in the last century, when epic, changing revelation brought the church into a recovery of the way that had been lost.
But now generations have passed. Many have served in the ways of the Lord. Those who have truly served know their weakness, and those who have been faithful nevertheless see how weak is the testimony of the Lord among His people.
Generations have passed, and yet the way, even today, needs recovery among His people.
How can we as servants, if we truly have a heart for the Lord, be satisfied with the ways of the Lord in which we have been instructed if we know there is a more perfect way?
If the way could be recovered, God’s servants would see their purpose from the beginning.
There are some servants of God here, I am sure, who are discouraged—some who perhaps even feel that they have come to the end of the way.
There are also some young servants here, and they really confess that they do not know the way.
Only God can reveal His Son in such a way that the way can be recovered among us. There is no human ministry nor human method that can recover the way to His church and His people.
But we know the Lord wants to. Today we have a very important moment before us. The coming of the Lord Jesus is nearer than ever before.
The Lord wants to recover His people in the way of expectancy, in order that He may come back.
In this generation, in these days, perhaps you have noticed that there is an earnest seeking among many young people today.
There is a fresh desire to know and serve the Lord. But they see the church around them in ruin.
In the United States, we are going completely aside with doctrines such as the prosperity gospel. Mega-churches are turning people away from serving to merely gaining. Our young people see this.
But when they see our assemblies, what do they think? I am sure they must see some faithful servants. I am sure they must see some ways of the Lord that are good.
But are we living in the way? May the Lord recover the way, that we might know the “I am” in our midst.
As soon as Jesus spoke to Thomas and said, “I am,” Thomas began a new way.
May the Lord speak to us: “I am.” May He lift us above the way we are going. May our lives be found in Him who is the way. This is our prayer among the servants of God.
Let us pray.
How precious is Your gospel to us, Lord. How many times we see Jesus, the “I am.”
You are the light, and You are the bread of heaven. You are the resurrection and the life and the true vine.
But, Lord, we come to You as servants and say, “O Lord, that we might see the way.” Not merely small ways of service, but that we might be caught up in the way, Who is the beginning.
May we experience that recovery which brings freshness and originality because it is born from Your throne. May our way be empowered because we are joined to the purpose of God for the end of glory.
Lord, all we are are weak servants, given to imitation and outward methods. Strip away from us all that we depend upon, that we might discover a new and living way with the “I am” before us.
Recover Your people. Recover Your church. Recover Your testimony. Recover Your life. Restore to us the transcendence of that life lived.
We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.