Please turn to the Gospel according to Matthew, Matthew 9:37-38.
Then saith He unto His disciples,
The harvest indeed is plenteous, but the labourers are few.
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest,
That He send forth labourers into His harvest.
Please turn also to Acts 13:1-3.
Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Symeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen the foster brother of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
And as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.
Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
Finally, let us turn to Ephesians 4:7-16. I will read it first in English, and my brother will read it in Spanish.
But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Wherefore He saith, When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive,
And gave gifts unto men.Now this, He ascended, what is it but that He also descended into the lower parts of the earth?
He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.
And He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
For the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ:
Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
That we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;
But speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him, who is the head, even Christ;
From whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love.
Let us have a further word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we do want to thank Thee because Thou hast gathered us together these days. As Thou art the beginning, Thou art also the end. We thank Thee, for Thou hast begun this conference, and we believe that Thou wilt conclude it also.
We thank Thee for Thy presence with us, and we thank Thee, knowing that Thou wilt continue to speak to us to the very end. Thank Thee, for Thou hast apprehended us. We all belong to Thee.
And we just open ourselves to Thee and cry to Thee that Thou wilt apprehend each one of us to the fullest—not for our sake, but for Thy sake—that Thy purpose may be fulfilled in every one of us.
May praise ascend to Thee and glorify Thy name. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
Thank God for being with us these days. In the morning sessions, we have been fellowshipping on the church. We find that we should know the Patmos vision, as we have known the heavenly vision on the road to Damascus.
The apostle Paul saw that heavenly vision on his road to Damascus. But here we find the apostle John. He saw that heavenly vision of Christ on the island of Patmos.
When Paul saw the vision on the road to Damascus, it changed his whole life. The Pharisee was transformed to become Paul the apostle because he had seen the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, when we see that the Lord is the Christ, the Son of the living God, it changes us from dust into living stones. But the work of God has not finished yet, because it is the will of God to build the church and to present her to His beloved Son.
Our Lord Jesus said, “My Father worketh even until now, and I work.” While He was on earth, He accomplished the work that the Father had sent Him to do.
On the cross of Calvary, He cried out, “It is finished.” So far as the work of redemption is concerned, it is finished. Everything has been done. You cannot add anything to it, and you cannot take anything away from it.
The finished work of our Lord Jesus is complete. There, as it were, He laid the foundation: He is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
But when we see the vision on the island of Patmos, we find that it is a continuation of the same vision on the road to Damascus. It is not enough merely to have the heavenly vision on the road to Damascus. That, as it were, lays the foundation. We must continue to see that heavenly vision on the island of Patmos.
To put it another way, when our Lord Jesus was on earth, He was the Apostle of our confession. But after He ascended into heaven, He is now the High Priest of our confession.
As the High Priest, He is in heaven ministering to His churches. I often feel that after we are saved, after we have believed in the Lord, the only way that we can live as Christians according to God’s will is when we realize that our Lord Jesus is not only the Apostle of God; He is also our High Priest.
As the book of Hebrews tells us, our Lord Jesus liveth forever, making intercession for us. He is able to save us to the uttermost. How we need our Lord Jesus to be our High Priest.
We cannot live as Christians without His intercession. When He intercedes in heaven, the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us, comes to work. By the working of the Holy Spirit, He is delivering us from ourselves and building Christ within us.
This is the only way that we can live the Christian life. But thank God, His purpose is not only for individuals, because no individual can really represent Christ.
Christ is the fullness of the Godhead. He needs a body to contain His fullness and to express His fullness. That is what the church is to be.
These days we are fellowshipping on the matter of the church. When our Lord Jesus was on earth, He laid the foundation of the church: He is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Now He is at the right hand of God, intensely engaged in the building of the church. As our Lord Jesus said, “Thou art Peter.” You are a living stone. You are a piece of the Rock.
Now He is building His church upon that foundation. He is building each and every one of us who believe in Him, and we are to be His building material.
This is most important: as our Lord Jesus is building the church, He uses all of Himself. He cannot build the church with our natural life. He can only build the church with the life that He has given to every one of us.
He has to clear up all the mixture in us. That is the reason why He calls us to be His disciples. We need to deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow Him.
Why is it so? Because this is the only way that we will be delivered from ourselves and Christ will be increased in us.
I hope, brothers and sisters, we will remember: as Christ is building His church, He is building us. But actually, it is the Christ in all of us that is being built to be that body. That is the work our Lord Jesus is carrying on in heaven.
This morning, we would like to share together concerning the church and the work. As you read the Bible, you will find that there is a close connection between the church and the work.
But at the very outset, we want to make it very clear: the church is the end; the work is simply a process. The final product is the church.
To put it another way, the work is for the church. Of course, the church is also for the work.
I believe, brothers and sisters, we have all read the book of Acts. In that book, we are given the story of the beginning stage of the church.
After Christ Jesus had accomplished His work of redemption, He ascended to heaven and is now at the right hand of God. Then, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down.
As the psalmist said, when our Lord Jesus ascended to heaven, He was anointed by God as Lord and Christ. This anointing came down from the Head and reached every part of the body.
When the one hundred and twenty believers were gathered together in the upper room, they waited ten days. They prayed and prepared themselves. Then, on the day of Pentecost, they heard as it were a mighty rushing wind filling the room.
Actually, in the original language, it is a mighty breathing that filled the house. We remember that when God created man, He formed a body and then breathed into his nostrils.
Brothers and sisters, here you find it is the same way. God was breathing upon them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit.
What is Pentecost? In one Spirit they were baptized into one body. The body is one, though it has many members. Many members, but one body. So also is the Christ.
That was the beginning of the church on earth. On that very same day, when the apostle Peter and the other eleven stood up, they proclaimed what had happened: God had anointed the Lord Jesus as Lord and Christ.
On that same day, three thousand people came to the Lord. They persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. And you see how the gospel began to spread.
You find Stephen. He was chosen to serve tables, but with great power he witnessed for the Lord. He was martyred for the Lord’s sake, and persecution began to come upon the church in Jerusalem.
Many who believed in the Lord Jesus had come from abroad. When they were saved, they did not return home; they remained in Jerusalem, fellowshipping with one another and continuing in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles.
They had such a wonderful time together. So the Lord, in His sovereignty, used persecution to scatter them. But as they were scattered, they brought the gospel with them and testified to the people concerning Jesus.
Those who had come from foreign countries, including Gentiles who had been saved on the day of Pentecost, returned to their own cities and testified to their own people. Thus the gospel spread not only in Judea, but also to Samaria and even to the uttermost parts of the earth.
That is why you have the church in Antioch. Humanly speaking, the composition of the church in Antioch included more Gentiles than Jews.
In the early days of the church, people thought that Christianity was simply a sect of Judaism. Therefore, the Roman Empire did not initially persecute Christians, because Judaism was protected by the government. Of course, there was persecution from Judaism.
Nevertheless, the church in Antioch was built up. They not only believed in the Lord Jesus; they persevered in the faith. Under Barnabas and Saul, they received teaching for a whole year.
I remember when I was in India in 1942. There was a gathering of God’s people in Madras. It had begun through Brother Bakht Singh.
Brother Bakht Singh was a Sikh, and his father was an industrialist. He went to England to study, and while traveling from the United States to Canada on a boat, he attended a Christian meeting in first class.
After the preacher had finished speaking, everyone knelt down to pray. He had no way to get out because he was surrounded by people. As a young man, he had been taught to honor all religions, so he also knelt down.
But while he was kneeling, something happened in his life. When he arrived in Canada, he asked a friend for a Bible. He began to read it, beginning with the Gospel according to John. The Lord opened his eyes, and he believed in the Lord.
After he graduated, he went home. But when he arrived, his father said, “I know you have changed your religion. But when you arrive home, you cannot mention Jesus.”
That he could not do. So his father left him, and he was all alone in Karachi. He still had some money in his pocket, so he obtained Gospel tracts and spoke to people in the streets.
Finally, his sister heard of his return and invited him to her home. When the family discovered that he was a Christian, they were frightened and called a family meeting.
His uncle began to accuse him, saying, “Your father gave you so much money. He sent you to England to study. Is this the way you treat your father?”
Before Brother Bakht Singh could say anything, his father said, “My son is right.” After he had left his son, he began to wonder what power there was in his son that made him willing to be left alone. He thought, “There must be something real.”
So his father went to a church and spoke with the pastor. The pastor gave him a Bible. He read the Bible, and he was saved.
Brother Bakht Singh traveled all over India, speaking to people. Many were saved. But after he had done this for some time, when he went back to the same cities, many of those who had been saved had disappeared.
The reason was that the so-called churches could not help these people. Brother Bakht Singh was puzzled.
At that time, a dear sister from England, Lady Oggo, wrote him a letter. She said, “If you want a place where you can be quiet before God, you are welcome to come.”
So he went to Lady Oggo’s home. Two young men had just come from England, and the four of them spent every morning praying together. They did not tell Brother Bakht Singh what to do; they simply prayed with him.
After they had prayed for some time, Brother Bakht Singh said, “The Lord has shown me the way.” I have forgotten all the things the Lord showed him, but I remember one thing. God told him, “Never lay any plan. Never have any plan. Just go as the Lord leads.”
That was the beginning of Brother Bakht Singh’s work in India. During the first year, they met every day—early in the morning before work, and again after work. The two dear brothers from England began to teach them.
When I arrived there a year later, I discovered that there was an assembly there. How I enjoyed my fellowship with them.
Brothers and sisters, here you find that when the Lord is working, He is working to build His church, in a very sovereign way.
When we read the book of Acts, we have entitled it The Acts of the Apostles, because we find that these apostles were used by the Lord to travel and to build churches.
From Acts 1 through Acts 12, you see the apostle Peter and how the Lord began to use him—not only to work among the Jews, but also to open the way for the Gentiles.
From Acts 13 to the end, you find mainly the work of the apostle Paul and those who worked together with him. That is why the book has been called The Acts of the Apostles.
But you know, this is not quite the right title. Properly speaking, it is not the acts of the apostles. When we read Acts 1:1, we find that Luke says that he had written a former treatise.
That former treatise refers to the Gospel according to Luke. In it, Luke tells us what our Lord Jesus began both to do and to teach. Now Luke is writing another treatise concerning what our Lord Jesus continued to do and to teach.
Therefore, the book of Acts is the book of the acts of our risen Lord. It is the acts of the Holy Spirit. Men are only being used by Him.
On that basis, let us return to Ephesians 4. Verse 7 says:
But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Who are these “each one of us”? It does not refer merely to the apostles. It refers to all believers. Brothers and sisters, to each one of us God has given grace.
This grace is according to the measure of the gift of Christ. In other words, it is because of what Christ has accomplished that grace has been given to every one of us.
What is grace? We often say that we are saved not by works but by grace, because grace is given to us freely and universally. The grace of God to us is Christ Himself.
Every one of us has Christ in us, and that makes us the body of Christ.
Then the Bible says:
Wherefore He saith, When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive,
And gave gifts unto men.
This is a quotation from Psalm 68:18.
Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led away captives;
Thou hast received gifts among men,
Yea, among the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell with them.
When our Lord Jesus ascended on high, He led captivity captive. Who are those who were captured? The captivity refers to us, because once we were all captives of the enemy of God.
But we who were in captivity, He captured. He delivered us from the captivity of Satan, but at the same time, He captured us for Himself.
Then He received gifts among men. The men here refer to us, because we are human beings. The Lord Jesus received us as God’s gift to Him.
Who are we? We are the rebellious. Before we believed in the Lord Jesus, when we were captives of the enemy of God, how we rebelled against God! But thank God for His wonderful grace: He captured us from captivity.
We who were rebellious are now His captives. What is He going to do with us? Psalm 68 says, “That the Lord God might dwell with them.”
Thank God for His grace. He not only captured us from captivity; He uses us, who were rebellious, and builds us together to be a habitation unto God.
Now this is what Psalm 68:18 says. But when the Holy Spirit quotes Psalm 68:18 in Ephesians 4, He puts it in a different way. Psalm 68 says that He “received gifts among men,” but Ephesians says that He “gave gifts unto men.”
Why is this so? Because He wants to build His church.
Brothers and sisters, you have here two different words: grace and gift. What is grace? Grace comes from God. God is the gracious One, and He gives to us freely and bountifully.
We are people of grace. We have received the grace of God.
What is a gift? It is something that comes from God and is given to us. For example, when a child is born, God gives that child all the members of his body.
You look at his face, and you find that he has two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. He has hands, a body, and feet. Every member of that body is complete. When he is born, he is complete.
Now this is grace. You have not paid anything for it. It is given by God.
But, brothers and sisters, after God has made you and put you in a body—making you a member of the body—do you know that He has also given you gifts?
He gives you eyes, but at the same time He gives the gift of seeing to the eyes. You are born with hands, and God gives those hands the gift of holding. You have feet, and God gives the gift of walking to the feet.
To put it another way, when you are born, all these gifts are already given. But when a child is just born, can he see? He cannot. The eyes are there, but his life needs to grow so that the gift of seeing can come out.
As he exercises his eyes, his seeing becomes clearer and clearer. This is the way the Lord is building His church.
Every believer has received grace—that is to say, the life of God. Every believer is born again with spiritual gifts. But these gifts may not be seen until life grows a little and the gifts begin to be manifested.
You look at a child. How does he walk? He crawls, because he does not know that feet are for walking. He does not know that hands are for holding. So he walks with both hands and feet.
But gradually he grows. His hands may help his feet to walk at first, but one day he suddenly uses his two feet to walk without his hands, and he walks well.
This is the same thing. You find that the Lord is building His church in the same way.
Many brothers and sisters come to me and say, “I do not know what my gift is. How can I serve?” I say, “Brother or sister, do not worry about that. Let your life in Christ grow.”
As your life grows, these gifts will be manifested. This is the way that the Lord is building His church.
Now you read on and come to Ephesians 4:11:
And He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.
These people seem to be different because God raised up some apostles. Not everyone is an apostle.
What is the work of an apostle? The work of the apostle is to go everywhere to build the church.
Then there are prophets. In Old Testament times, we find that God raised up prophets, and they prophesied. They told of coming events. Thus, our common impression of prophecy is that it is telling the future.
But even in the Old Testament, the prophets did not only foretell events. Their main work was to forthtell—to declare what God thought about the people.
They did not merely tell what God would do to His people in the future; they declared how God regarded them in the present.
When you come to New Testament times, the emphasis is no longer upon the future. New Testament prophecy is more the forthtelling of the will and mind of God.
The emphasis is declaring the will of God: what is God’s mind toward His people?
Then you have evangelists. These are people raised up by God to go to the nations and preach the gospel.
Then there are shepherds and teachers. Here you find that shepherds and teachers are one class. In some translations, it says “pastors and teachers,” but they are the same persons, though they may have different work.
Teachers are those who teach the Word of God. Shepherds, or pastors, are those who counsel people one by one, helping them and solving their problems. Today we would call them counselors.
The shepherds and teachers are one class.
Immediately, you find that, as it were, there is another group of people outside the body—a group raised up by God to work upon the body.
Now, when I say “outside the body,” I do not mean that they do not belong to the body. But so far as their ministry is concerned, their ministry is directed toward the body and works for the body.
Why does God raise up these people? Today we call them workers. Are they to build the church directly or indirectly?
When you read Ephesians 4:12, you find the answer:
For the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ.
Their work is to perfect the saints. What does it mean to perfect the saints? It has two aspects.
First, it is to help the saints grow spiritually—to help them grow in Christ, so that the life of Christ in them may increase and develop. It is to bring out the life of Christ in the saints.
Second, it is to help them develop the gifts that God has given them. This is mainly the work of the so-called workers.
Then the Bible says, “unto the work of ministering.” What does the work of the ministry mean? It means the ministry of the body of Christ.
When these workers are helping the saints and perfecting the saints, what is their objective? Their objective is the ministry.
Remember 2 Corinthians 4:1. The apostle Paul says, “Therefore seeing we have this ministry.” What is this ministry? This ministry is for the building of the church.
So all these workers, while perfecting the saints—helping the saints to grow in life and helping them to exercise their gifts—have the ministry in view. It is the ministry of the building of the body.
When the saints are built up and exercise their gifts, there is the self-building up of the body of Christ. Therefore, the Bible says, “unto the building up of the body of Christ.”
Those who are engaged in the work of God are responsible to help the brothers and sisters grow spiritually—not merely in knowledge, but much more in life.
When the saints are growing in the Lord, it is the work of the saints that really builds the body. The Bible calls it the building up of itself in love, according to the working in due measure of each individual part.
I hope you can catch this: the work is for the church.
Apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers do not build the church directly. They build indirectly. They build up the members of the body of Christ; they perfect the saints.
As the saints grow in life and exercise their gifts, all these things work together. That is the building of the body. It is Christ in every one of us being built into that body.
That is why you have the work and the church. The work is for the church, and that is how the church is built.
When you really read the Word of God, you can see the relationship between these two things.
When the apostle Paul and his fellow workers went anywhere, they preached the gospel. People were saved, and they gathered them together.
Sometimes they remained for a short time. Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half. But after they had gathered the people together and helped to build them in the Lord, they returned again.
Then they began to appoint elders. Among the brothers and sisters, there were some who seemed to grow faster and to be more mature than others. The apostles appointed them as elders.
What is the work of the elders? Elders are to govern for God in the church. They watch over the church and are responsible to God.
They are like the stars in the right hand of the risen Lord. That is the time when the church is more or less built up.
Before elders are established, churches may be under the hands of workers. But after elders are established, the responsibility is upon the elders and no longer in the hands of the workers.
That is why you find every local church is independent. You do not find apostles governing all the churches. If this were the case, no local church would be independent.
Apostles or prophets may live in a certain locality, but after elders have been established, they live there simply as brothers in the Lord.
If there is anything wrong with the local church, they may exercise spiritual authority, trying to convince the believers concerning what they have done. But they have no governmental authority.
For example, when you read 1 Peter, you find that Peter calls himself a fellow elder. Why is this so? Because, even though he was an apostle, in Jerusalem he was also an elder.
That is why, when Paul visited Jerusalem, he found James, John, and Peter as pillars. They were apostles, but they were also elders in the church in Jerusalem.
That is why John wrote his second and third epistles as “the elder.” He was not only an apostle; he was also an elder with responsibility in the church.
This is the way the Lord has arranged things. The way of the Lord is wonderful.
We have already mentioned that the Lord builds His church by first building the local churches. In Revelation 2 and 3, you find the Lord Jesus as the High Priest building the local churches.
But when you come to Revelation 21 and Revelation 22, you find only one city descending from heaven upon the new earth—the universal church.
In other words, His work has been completed.
Brothers and sisters, as we look at the churches today, probably we may feel that the church will never be built.
One day, Brother Watchman Nee was asked, “What is the most difficult prophecy to be fulfilled?” Brother Nee said, “It is Ephesians 5: the church becoming a glorious church.”
That He might present the church to Himself a glorious church,
Not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing;
But that it should be holy and without blemish.
The church is to become the bride of the Lamb. That is the most difficult thing to be fulfilled.
But, brothers and sisters, with men it is impossible; with God all things are possible.
We thank God that the One building the church is God Himself. Whatever He has purposed, He will accomplish for the glory of God. Amen.
Dear Lord, we do want to praise Thee that Thou hast gathered us together these days that we may learn concerning the church.
How we praise Thee that Thou art building. Therefore, the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. If we were building it, Satan would prevail. But Thou art building, and Thou art the victorious One.
Whatever Thou art building will be built. We praise and thank Thee for the vision of the New Jerusalem descending from heaven. It is to be an eternal reality.
By the grace of God, we are all there. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.