Will you please turn to the book of Acts?
But ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you:
and ye shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, as we gather here this morning, we are full of gratitude. We thank Thee for Thy tremendous love for us. Thou hast given us opportunity after opportunity because it is in Thy heart that we should be ready for Thy imminent return.
We open our hearts to Thee and say, “What hast Thou to say to us?” Lord, we are here. Speak; Thy servants hear. And to Thee be all the glory.
In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.
I hope that you still remember what I spoke two days ago. The theme for this conference is, “You are My witnesses.”
We have said, “Does God need witnesses? Who can be His witness?” For He is the First and He is the Last. He is the self-existing One. Nobody was there to see how He came to be God. Therefore, nobody can be His witness, and He does not need any witness.
But why does the Bible say, “You are My witnesses”? This is something we want to understand.
In my first session, we mentioned how, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. But before He created them, if we can use human words to describe it, it was as if there was a council among the Godhead.
The Father loved His Son so much that He wanted to do something for His Son. He wanted to create all things for His Son.
But God, being God, knew what was going to transpire. He knew that something would happen, and for that reason, if we may use human words, God hesitated.
So the Son stepped forward and said, “Father, if it is Your will to create, go ahead. I am willing to offer Myself as a Lamb.”
We find in 1 Peter 1 that the Lord Jesus, the Son, offered Himself as the Lamb so that He could redeem man and accomplish the purpose of God.
That is the reason why we have Genesis 1:1: God created the heavens and the earth.
As we said two days ago, when God first created the heavens and the earth, He did not create man. The highest of His creation were angels. Angels are spirits. They do not have a body, though they can take a body; basically, they are spirits.
Among the angels, God created an archangel. His name was Lucifer, and it means “brilliant star.”
The Bible tells us how he was created in such a perfect way. God gave him talents. He was supposed to be the anointed covering angel. He was to lead the angels in worshipping God. In the beginning, he did so.
But little by little, he began to look into himself. He realized how talented he was, how beautiful he was, and he began to have an idea. He thought that he should be equal with God.
Brothers and sisters, that is where Lucifer failed and became Satan, the adversary of God.
For that reason, God dismissed him from the throne. Most likely, the earth was at that time under his control. For that reason, the earth was surrounded with waters—what we historically call the Ice Age. We do not know how long this continued.
But thank God, we have Genesis 1:2. God did not give up. God never gives up. We find that the Spirit of God brooded over the face of the deep, and in six days He restored the earth to be habitable.
It was at that time, on the sixth day, that God created man. So, brothers and sisters, we are the latecomers.
Yet when God created man, He created man according to His own image. This God had never done before. He created all things to glorify Him, but He had never created anything in His image—that is, with His inner quality.
He gave man a character because He created man with a definite purpose. What is that purpose? He wanted man to be His witness.
In other words, He wanted to use man to defeat His enemy. We have said before that for God to destroy Satan is an easy thing. God can use His breath. But that would not give God glory.
So, for the glory of God, God created man lower than the angels. He would fill that man with Himself and use that man to defeat His enemy. That would give God glory.
Dear brothers and sisters, we have to remember that we were not created for our own sake. If we live for ourselves, we miss the whole meaning of man. God created us for Him. He wants to use us to overcome His enemy. Man is to glorify God.
We have already mentioned how God put man in the Garden of Eden and gave him a command. He said, “You can eat of all the fruits of these trees, but there is one tree of which you should not eat. It is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
As we have said before, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not a bad tree. As a matter of fact, it was better than all the other trees, except the tree of life. There is nothing higher than ethical knowledge.
Then why did God not allow man to eat that fruit? It is because God knew that if man, without the life of God, ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that is to say, if he tried to be independent of God and depended upon his own resources, it would mean death to man.
So God put man in the garden and gave him a command. God did not want man to be at leisure, with nothing to do, because if man has nothing to do, he will think of himself and sin against God.
God gave him the command to till the earth and improve the trees that God had grown. Brothers and sisters, we are not supposed to be at leisure. We should work.
But this is only one command. There was another command: God wanted man to guard the garden. Why? Because the garden had no wall, and outside the garden God knew there was His enemy.
God wanted man to be the wall of that garden. Brothers and sisters, just think of it. It was a huge garden, and man was to be the wall of that garden. What latent power God must have given to man, by himself, to become the wall and prevent God’s enemy from slipping in.
So we know that God endowed Adam with tremendous power. Unfortunately, man did not guard the garden. The enemy slipped in and tempted Eve, and we all know the story.
Eve was tempted. She ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She fell into the temptation of the enemy. She doubted God’s love and wisdom. She wanted to be independent of God. She herself ate, and she gave her husband to eat.
Brothers and sisters, did Adam know what he was doing? Certainly he did. But he chose Eve instead of God. So he also ate the forbidden fruit.
They discovered that they were naked. As I said before, when God created all the animals and birds, He always gave them a covering. Even today, some people put clothing on dogs, but actually dogs do not need clothing because God has already given them a covering.
Can you think that God did not clothe man with clothing? No. I personally feel that God must have clothed man with glory. Therefore, man did not know that he was naked.
But the moment they took the forbidden fruit, glory departed. The first thing they discovered was that they were naked. So they tried to use fig leaves as an apron to cover their nakedness.
In the cool of the day, the Lord God visited the garden. When they heard His sound, they hid themselves. Why? Why? Because even with the covering of fig leaves, they were still naked.
The man whom God had ordained to be used by Him, the man whom God wanted to use to defeat His enemy, had now sinned against God. This was what Adam was, and this is what all who came out of Adam are.
Man failed God, and failed God terribly.
But did God give up? No. God never gives up. Even before He created anything, if you turn to 1 Peter 1:18-19, you find that before the foundation of the world, before God began to create, His Son offered Himself as a Lamb.
It was as if the Son said, “Father, if this is Your will, I am willing to be the Lamb. I am willing to bear the sin of the world. I am willing to die to redeem human beings so that Your plan will be fulfilled.”
Dear brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus, the Son of God, was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Before the foundation of the world, He offered Himself as the substitute for man.
He would use His blood to cleanse us from all our sins. He would give His own life to every one of us, that we might live—and not only live, but fulfill God’s purpose for man.
This is exactly what happened.
I understand that several brothers have already mentioned Philippians 2, so I hesitate to add something more to it. But in order to complete the thought, I feel I have to say something about it.
You find in Philippians 2 that, though He was equal with God, it was not something to be grasped at. That is a hint that one day the archangel Lucifer tried to be equal with God.
But so far as the Son of God is concerned, He is equal with God, and this is not something He tried to grasp because this is what He originally is. Yet He emptied Himself.
Brothers and sisters, when our Lord Jesus came into this world, the Word became flesh and tabernacled among men, full of grace and truth.
When He came to be a man, He had to empty Himself. Of course, He could not empty Himself of His Godhead, because that is what He is. But He emptied Himself of all the honor and glory surrounding the Godhead.
Sometimes I think God wants us to empty ourselves, and how we hesitate. I think we have so much to be emptied of. But as a matter of fact, all we can empty is our sin. What else do we have?
But think of the Son of God. He is the fullness of the Godhead. When you think of God, you think of the glory of God, the power of God, and the character of God. He is unlimited.
Yet He emptied Himself—not of His Godhead, but of all the glory and honor surrounding the Godhead. That is real emptiness.
He was in the form of God. The word “form” there does not refer to outward shape. It refers to an inward quality.
Yet our Lord Jesus laid aside that form—that is, all the honor, glory, power, and authority of the Godhead. He began to take up another form, and that other form was the form of a bondservant.
He took upon Himself the shape of a man, and the shape there refers to His outward form. But the inward form is the character of God, the mightiness of God, and the glory of God.
Brothers and sisters, what an emptiness that must have been. When our Lord Jesus came into this world, His emptiness was real emptiness.
What we are supposed to be emptied of is nothing compared with this. Yet how reluctant we are to empty ourselves, as if we had something that could be treasured. As a matter of fact, what is it? It is our sin.
Dear brothers and sisters, when our Lord Jesus came down, that was real emptiness.
When He came to be a man, He was a perfect man. Even though inwardly He is God, He never exercised Himself as God.
Throughout His life, He obeyed His Father. You remember what He said: “I cannot say anything by Myself.” What He said was because He had heard His Father say it. “I cannot do anything by Myself.” What He did was because the Father had done it. “I cannot go anywhere” by Himself.
You remember, during the feast, when our Lord’s earthly brothers were going to Jerusalem to keep the feast, they found Jesus stayed behind. At that time, even they did not believe in Him.
They said, “If You want to be famous, You have to go to Jerusalem, because this is the time when the people are there.” But our Lord Jesus said, “Your time is always ready, but My time has not yet come.”
After His brothers had left, He also left. Is there any contradiction? No. Even in that short period, He would not do anything by Himself. He waited until His Father’s time had come.
Throughout His life, brothers and sisters, we find that our Lord Jesus never did anything by Himself. He never went anywhere by Himself. He never said anything of Himself. Everything in His life was in obedience to His Father. If it was the Father’s will, He would do it.
You remember the scene on the Mount of Transfiguration. Toward the end of His earthly life, He took three of His closest disciples with Him, and they went up to the mountain.
When they were on the mountain, our Lord was transfigured. Glory began to appear out of Him. His clothing became glorious, and Moses and Elijah appeared to Him.
They were talking about His departure—how He would go out of this world.
Dear brothers and sisters, this was a very intense time. So far as the Lord Himself was concerned, He had lived thirty-three years on earth, and He was absolutely ready to return to His Father.
He had come to this world. He had proven how obedient He was to the Father. So far as He Himself was concerned, He was worthy to return to His Father. This is what Moses and Elijah were talking with Him about: how He would depart from the world.
Every time you think of this scene, it touches our hearts. For Himself, He was ready to ascend to His Father. And if He had done so, what would have happened? There would have been only one man saved; we would all have been finished.
But thank God, He did not depart. He did not go out. Instead, He came down from the mountain and set His face toward Jerusalem. There He went to Calvary.
There He bore our sins, and there He accomplished the work of salvation.
Brothers and sisters, every time you think of that, you can see what our Lord Jesus has done for us—for your sake and for my sake, not for Himself.
So far as our Lord Jesus as a man is concerned, He is the man of God’s mind. But, brothers and sisters, it was for our sake that He went to the cross. What love is that?
We are here this morning because of what He has done for us. If it were not because of that, we would not be here. There would be no hope.
But thank God, He is our hope of glory. Our Lord Jesus not only died for us, but He accomplished the work of salvation, was resurrected, and ascended.
Before He left, He told His disciples to go from Jerusalem to Samaria, to all Judea, and even to the end of the earth, to be His witnesses.
This is what the Bible means when it says, “You are My witnesses.”
Remember: we are created for God. We are redeemed for God. We should not think of living by ourselves or for ourselves. This is not the will of God.
God’s will is for us to be His witnesses. How can we be His witnesses? We cannot do it on our own. But He will work in our lives to such a degree that our lives on earth will be a witness and a testimony.
Thank God, we know what we ought to do today. We need to give ourselves completely to Him and enable Him to work in our lives until Christ is fully formed. That will be our testimony.
When you come to the end of the Gospel according to Matthew, we have what is called the Great Commission. What is the Great Commission?
Oftentimes, we think the Great Commission is to go to the world and preach the gospel. Thank God, for centuries the church has been doing that.
We think evangelism is the Great Commission. Of course, we have to preach the gospel. Evangelism is the beginning; it is not the end.
Thank God, the church has awakened and begun to realize how it needs to go to the ends of the world to preach the gospel. Evangelism has become the Great Commission.
But as you read the Great Commission, it is more than evangelism. Of course, evangelism is included, but that is only the beginning. What the Lord has commissioned us to do is much greater than that: to make disciples of all the nations.
In other words, the Lord wants us to go and make disciples of the nations.
Today, in our minds, there seems to be a separation between believers and disciples. You can be a believer, but you have to wait until you become a disciple. This is because we think evangelism is everything. As long as you are saved, that is it.
As one brother said, “If my two legs are within the gate of heaven, I am satisfied.” But you are satisfied—will God be satisfied? No. He has something far more than that.
The Lord Jesus said, “You go and make disciples of all nations.” That means not only believers, but disciples.
Of course, the disciples here are not students in the modern sense. When you become a student, you pay a fee, you go to study, you try to absorb all the learning of the profession, and then you graduate.
Brothers and sisters, this is not the idea of Scripture. This is not discipleship. Discipleship is like old-fashioned apprenticeship.
In the old days in China, we did not have what we have today—colleges and so forth. When you were growing up, you needed to learn a trade.
I remember my father. My father was the oldest son. My grandfather was a builder; he built houses. He built an American school in Shanghai.
In order to do business with foreigners, my grandfather sent my father to an American school to learn English so that he could help him in the business.
But thank God, when my father was in that school, he was led to the Lord and believed in the Lord Jesus. When he told his parents, my grandfather was very unhappy. At that time, so-called believers were considered to be seeking benefits from foreigners. It was a disgrace to believe in the Lord Jesus.
So my grandfather did not allow my father to go back to school. Instead, he was to be apprenticed out. My grandfather said that if he had no contact with foreigners, he would be all right.
But my father’s faith was true. The next day, he was going to be sent out to be apprenticed. My grandfather, grandmother, and father did not sleep that night.
But my father’s faith was sure. After midnight, my grandmother’s heart was softened. She said, “Let him go back to school.”
My father finished school, and when he went to college, my grandfather would not support him. My father took eight years to finish college because he was partly studying and partly working.
Thank God, his faith was firm. Gradually, my grandmother also believed.
My grandfather never in his life expressed that he had become a believer. I was the grandson that he loved most because I looked like him. After I was saved, I also talked with him. My father talked with him.
Can you imagine that my grandfather was illiterate? He could not even sign his name, but he could do business with foreigners. Why? He used pidgin English.
I will tell you what pidgin English is: “English, one tongue. Banana, one too. Banana, eat up.” That is the way my grandfather spoke English.
We prayed for my grandfather. Sometimes, without anybody knowing, he went to hear my father preaching. When he was sick, he allowed my aunt to read the Bible to him.
But he would not allow anyone else—strangers—to come in. We prayed for him.
When he died, he did not give any impression that he really believed in the Lord Jesus. I was at that time already working in Hong Kong. I said, “Lord, we have been praying for him all the time. Whether he was saved or not, You know.”
You know what happened? He had a concubine. Because he was such a good man and helped people, some people insisted on giving their daughter to him.
He went to his concubine every afternoon, but in the evening he always came back. His concubine was a devout Buddhist.
When my grandfather died, she called a magician because she wanted to talk to him. You know that in China in the old days, if you wanted to talk to a dead person, you could call a magician. He would do some magic and speak to you in that person’s tongue. That is really devilish.
She wanted to talk to my grandfather, so she took a chair. The magician came, and do you know what he said? He said, “Do not call me. I do not belong to you.”
Thank God, I know my grandfather was saved.
Brothers and sisters, God wants us not only to be believers, but to be disciples. A disciple is one who commits himself completely to his Master.
Not only does he learn, but after he has been under his master for a few years, he will talk like his master. He will be like his master. This is discipleship.
He wants us to be like Him. We will absorb Him in such a way that we will be like Him.
The first thing is to be baptized. Baptized means you come to the end of yourself. When you go under the water, you go to death. It is no longer you, but Christ in you.
Brothers and sisters, that is baptism. After one is baptized, that is to say, he has committed himself totally to the Lord.
It is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me.
Then teach them all the things that I taught you, until Christ is fully formed.
The Lord said, “I will be with you to the end of the age.” This is the Great Commission.
Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee for giving us this opportunity. Lord, Thou hast called us to be Thy disciples.
So, Lord, we pray that we will offer ourselves to Thee and allow Thee to work out Thy full salvation in us, that we may be fully formed.
Oh, dear Lord, do not allow any here to fail to give himself or herself to Thee. Work in each and every one of us until Christ is fully formed.
Dear Lord, we want to say, as Paul said:
For to me to live is Christ.
May this be true of every one of us here. This is our prayer. May glory be unto Thee.
In Thy name, amen.