Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (1) - 10

Message Title: Glory and Glorification as Revealed in the Gospel of John

we are not going to the New Jerusalem. Because New Jerusalem is a person, we are becoming the New Jerusalem.

2 Corinthians 3:16 But whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

at the beginning of everyday, we need to turn our heart to the Lord. no one can do this for us. we use our human will to make the decision that we want to turn our heart to the Lord. the result is that the veil is taken away, which leads us to the experience in verse 18. 

2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.

when we have an unveiled face, we can behold and reflect the glory of the Lord. where is the glory of the Lord? it is in 4:6.

2 Corinthians 4:6 Because the God who said, Out of darkness light shall shine, is the One who shined in our hearts to illuminate the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

the glory of the Lord is the face of Jesus Christ. today, Christ is on the throne, but He is also in us as the indwelling Spirit. Everyday, the Lord is finding a way to get into our mind, emotion, and will. we just need to simply call on the name of the Lord, and ask Him to supply us with te portion of grace for that day. 

I. the glory of God is intrinsically related to the economy of God

the Triune God is a God of glory. God's eternal goal is to bring His many sons (all the regenerated believers growing up to become sons) into glory. 

Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.

we, as man, are created to express God in His glory. the more we grow in life and are saved in life, the more we will express God, instead of self-expression, but God-expression. when God is expressed, He is the God of glory.

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

To sin is to fall short of God's glory and thus to express sin and the sinful self and to love the glory of men more than the glory of God. Christ's redemption has fulfilled the requirements of God's glory. His redemption has saved us from expressing sin and sinful self. rather, we have been saved to express God. 

II. the glory of God is involved with Christ's incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and coming again and His being the lamp in the New Jerusalem

In His life and work, the Lord Jesus did not seek His own glory but the glory of the One who sent Him. 

III. In the Gospel of John we can see the glory and glorification of the Lord Jesus

on the mount of transfiguration, the three disciples saw the glorification of the Lord Jesus. 

John 12:23 And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

for Jesus as the Son of Man to be glorified was for Him to be resurrected. 

the subject of John chapter 17 is that the Father would glorify the Son so that the Son would glorify the Father. on the night before His crucifixion, the Lord Jesus prayed for the oneness, oneness in the divine life, oneness in the word, and the highest oneness in the divine glory. we must reach the highest stage of oneness before the Lord could come back and rapture the overcoming saints, who have been overcoming in various situations. so the oneness in the divine glory for the corporate expression of the Triune God. the Lord must have this highest degree of oneness at any cost, and the Lord must have our cooperation. 

IV. As the embodiment of the Triune God, Christ the Son is the Father's glorification

how often do we pray to the Father? how much fellowship do we have with the Father? when the apostle John wrote his epistle, he mentioned that our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son. Our Father is the source of every postive thing in the church life. in every decision that we make, we need to come to the Father as the source, realising that we ourselves are not the source. 

Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (1) - 9

Message Title: Christ as the Resurrection and the Grain of Wheat

the Lord needs to train us to the extent that, in whatever situation we are facing, we will not trust in ourselves, but in the God who is resurrection. 

we need to be renewed so that we can be delivered out of our oldness and staleness. how can we be renewed?

1. by the cross

2 Corinthians 4:12 So then death operates in us, but life in you.

when the death, which is the cross operates in us, we will be releasing and imparting life, which is the resurrection life into others. also, we ourselves are being renewed.

2. by the Holy Spirit

Titus 3:5 Not out of works in righteousness which we did but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit,

3. by the mingled spirit

Ephesians  4:23 And that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind

4. by the word

Ephesians  5:26 That He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word,

5. the Lord's table

Matthew 26:29 But I say to you, I shall by no means drink of this product of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of My Father.

the Lord nevers an old table meeting. whenever we come to the Lord's table, we need to be fresh and new. what makes us old when we come to the table? not forgiving each other, and holding on to the offences. we need to ask others to forgive us, to seek to be forgiven, and we also need to forgive others. 

I. We can experience, enjoy, and express Christ as the resurrection 

John 11:25 Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes into Me, even if he should die, shall live;

in order to live in resurrection, we must see the unveiled truth concerning Christ's resurrection:

1. in resurrection, Christ was begotten to be the firstborn Son of God

Acts  13:33 That God has fully fulfilled this promise to us their children in raising up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, “You are My Son; this day have I begotten You.”

2. all the believers of Christ were regenerated by God the Father through the resurrection of Christ for the producing of the church as His Body, His reproduction.

1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

3. Christ as the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit

1 Corinthians 15:45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul”; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.

Numbers 17:5 And the rod of the man whom I choose shall bud, and I will put a stop to the murmurings of the children of Israel against Me, which they murmur against you.

In Numbers chapter 16, there was the rebellion against Moses and Aaron, God commanded from each tribe, a rod of the leading one should be placed beofre Him overnight. then the next day, Aaron's rod became budded and bore ripe almonds. all the twelve rods were leafless, dry, and dead. but the one chosen by God budded and bore fruit. this shows that resurrection is the basis of God's selection and that the basis of service is something apart from our natural life. Aaron's budding rod was put within the Ark, showing that resurrection is an eternal principle in our service to God. Resurrection means that everyting is of God and not of us. 

II. We can experience, enjoy, and express Christ as the grain of wheat

in the resurrection of Christ, the enlarged, divine-human, universal incorporation of the processed Triune God with the regenerated believers came forth from Christ as the transfigured grain of wheat in three aspects:

1. the Father's house for His rest, satisfaction, and manifestation

John 14:2 In My Father’s house are many abodes; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.

2. the true vine for God's enlargment, spreading, and glorification

3. the child of the Spirit, the new man, to carry out God's eternal economy

Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (1) - 8

Message Title: Christ as the Feast of Tabernacles and as the Spirit Flowing out of the Believers as Rivers of Living Water

God appointed seven feasts every year for the Israel people, because God wanted His people to enjoy these feasts with God, unto God, and also with one another. it is not a small thing, or an insignificant thing for God's people to come together in a feasting way. 

the last feast is the Feast of Tabernacles, signifying the end of human life, though may full of accomplishments and successes, yet still filled with thirstiness and dissatisfaction. 

I. We can enjoy Christ as the Feast of Tabernacles

the reality of all the feasts ordained by God is Christ. the Feast of Tabernacles signifies Christ as the consummation of God's full salvation organically. God ordained the Feast of Tabernacles so that the children of Israel would remember how their forefathers had lived in tents in their wandering in the wilderness. 

Deuteronomy 32:7 Remember the days of long ago; / Consider the years of generation upon generation; / Ask your father, and he will inform you; / Your elders, and they will tell you.

We, as God's people, have a history. The Triune God has a long history with His people, especially in the recovery. God wants us to remember so that we will be reminded, charged and encouraged to go on, like what Moses did in the book of Deutoronomy. we need some healthy rememberance. we need to remember where we come from, what God has given us, has done for us and taught us. 

the reality of the Feast of Tabernacles is a time of enjoyment in remembrance of how we experienced God and of how God lived with us. during that time, the Israel people would remember how God led them for 40 years wandering in the wilderness, how God gave them manna morning by morning, and even how God punished and dealt with the rebellion among the people. 

Hebrews 11:9 By faith he dwelt as a foreigner in the land of promise as in a foreign land, making his home in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the fellow heirs of the same promise;

Hebrews 11:10 For he eagerly waited for the city which has the foundations, whose Architect and Builder is God.

The New Jerusalem being called the tabernacle of God is for the overcomers in the first stage of the New Jerusalam to remember how they also dwlet in tents, living on the earth as strangers and sojourners and looking forward to the eternal tabernacle, the God-built city, the mutual habitation of God and man. if we would walk in the steps of Abraham's faith, we must live the life of the altar and the tent, taking Christ as our life and the church as our living. the altar and the tent cannot be separated. the altar is our life toward God, and the tent is our life on the earth in the world. in order to live the life of the altar, we must live under God's appearing. the altar signifies the cross where Christ died for us, and also signifies our consecration, with Christ as our full burnt offerings. here at the altar, we are one with Him, are identified with Him, and are consecrating ourselves to Him. the life of the altar issues the life of the tent. we must have the experience of the altar, which is our consecration, then we will be able to live a life of the tent. consecration is not our dedication. the word "consecration" in Hebrews means "the hands be filled with". therefore, consecration means that we need to let Christ fill us, fill our hands. 

Genesis 13:3 And he continued on his journey from the Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,

Genesis 13:4 To the place of the altar, which he had made there formerly; and there Abram called on the name of Jehovah.

Abraham had his failures, and there was the forsaking of the altar and the tent. However, with him there was also a recovery, and recovery is a matter of returning to the altar and the tent with calling on the name of the Lord. for us today also, we will have many failures, and often we drift away from the altar and the tent to enter further into the world. but the Lord never forsakes and gives us up. like Abraham, we will also have the recovery, when we return to the altar and the tent with our calling, our enjoying the Lord. 

II. Through and in His resurrection, Christ as the last Adam becaome the life-giving Spirit to impart life and to enter into His believers to flow out as rivers of living water

John 7:37 Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.

John 7:38 He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.

John 7:39 But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

it is only by this Spirit that He can dwell in us, and it is only by this Spirit that we can enter into Him. He became this Spirit, which can be received. the life-giving Spirit is the consummated Spirit, the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God. 

Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (1) - 7

Message Title: The Bread of Life

the age of jubilee is an age of ecstasy. if we have never experienced ecstasy, we are not in the reality of Christ as jubilee, where everything is satisfying to our heart.  if we have the word of grace, we can be in jubilee anytime and anywhere. 

we need the Lord to unveil to us what it means for Christ to be the bread of life to us. what do we do with bread?? we eat bread. so the Lord is introducing Himself in such a way. then the question is what is our taste? what is our appetite? are we eating the bread of life sufficiently? 

Revelation 2:7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.

this reminds us of Genesis, that there were all kinds of trees in the garden of Eden, pleasant to eyes and good for food. this shows us that in the very beginning at the time of creation, God is indicating to man that He wants man to eat. but there is also a warning in Genesis 2:17, that whoever eats of the tree of knowledge of good and evil will surely die. it is very clear that God desires man to eat, and to enjoy life. we need to check with ourselves: what is the nature of our diet? On what do we spend time to eat? 

I. if we read John 6 carefully, we should have a deep impression of this chapter and pay attention to the sequence of seven crucial points

1. the Lord is the bread of life

John 6:35 Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall by no means hunger, and he who believes into Me shall by no means ever thirst.

2. the Lord gives His bread of life for us to eat

John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread which I will give is My flesh, given for the life of the world.

3. the Lord also gives His blood for us to drink

John 6:53 Jesus therefore said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within yourselves.

4. the Lord not only died but also resurrected

John 6:56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him.

the Lord was slain on behalf of us. He rose from the dead, because His desire was to abide in us and that we could abide in Him. 

5. Because Christ lives in us, we live because of Him and live before God

John 6:57 As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.

for us to live the Christian life, we need to eat HIm as the bread of life. this is a matter of eating. 

6. His Spirit, not His physical flesh, gives us life and the life supply 

John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

7. The Spirit is in the Lord's spoen words; His words are spirit and life

II. Chapter 6 of the Gospel of John is a detailed discourse on the Lord Jesus being the bread of life; He declared "I am the bread of life"

there are many other things for us to eath, which are not healthy and even poisonour, which are not able to give us satisfaction. that is why the Lord unveils to us that He is the true bread. the more we take in the poisonous things, the more we will develop a taste for these evil things. 

when we eat this bread and digest it, it becomes our constitution, and we are joined and mingled with the Lord as one. 

John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

since Christ is the Spirit, we can contact Him as the Spirit within us. Because He is the life-giving Spirit, we can feed upon and assimilate Him as our food. in order to receive the Lord Jesus as the bread of life, our life supply to nourish us, we need to see that He is the life-giving Spirit and that this Spirit is embodied in the Word. Daily we need to come to the Lord and touch Him as the Spirit in the Word; if we do this, we will feed on Christ as the bread of life. 

if we receve the Word, we will have the Spirit, and if we have the Spirit within us, we will have Christ as the inner supply of life. 

Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (1) - 6

Message Title: Christ as the Word of God

the definition of what the Bible is? 

the Bible is the autobiography and history of the jouneying Triune God as the Word of God. 

Psalm 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, / And before You gave birth to the earth and the world, / Indeed from eternity to eternity, You are God.

God came out of the eternity past, crossed the bridge of time, into the eternity future. 

I. John 1 is the introduction to the whole Gospel of John, and the main stress of this introduction is that Christ is the Word of God - the definition, explanation, and expression of the mysterious and invisible God

Christ as the Word of God is the great I Am, self-existing and ever-existing; He is the One who is eternal, without beginning or ending. 

John 5:39 You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that testify concerning Me.

John 5:40 Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

we have the written word, the living word, and the applied word. everytime we come to the bible, we need to pray a simple prayer:" Lord, I come to You in Your holy word. Dispense Yourself into me as the eternal life." when we pray over the written word, which is the embodiment of the living word, this logos is converted into rhema, which is the instant word, the applied word of the Spirit, a personal word to us. 

II. Christ as the Word of God speaks for God through His creation

John 1:3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not one thing came into being which has come into being.

Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of Him, both His eternal power and divine characteristics, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being perceived by the things made, so that they would be without excuse;

when we look at the creaton, how can we not recognise that there is God, who is the great Creator, who has created all these things, animals, plants on the earth. These are the manifestation of God's beauty. It is God's arrangement and preparation of the univese for mankind, and His provision for man's every need, shows God's loving kindness towards man. 

III. Christ as the Word of God speaks for God through His incarnation as the tabernacle of God

God's building is a God-man. it is God built into man and man into God. 

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality.

the Word, by being incarnated, not only brought God into humanity, but also became a tabernacle to God as God's habitation on earth among men, being full of grace and reality. because Christ became flesh, He became the embodiment of the Triune God, bringing God to man and making God contactable, tubhable, receivable, experienceable, enterable, and enjoyable. 

IV. Christ as the Word of God speaks for God through His becoming the Lamb of God for redemption

In His becoming the Lamb for the redemption of the lost world, Christ speaks to us how God accomplished redemption judicially through His death as the procedure according to His righteousness. 

Christ came as the reality of all the offerings mentioned in Leviticus. with Christ as all the offerings, we have God's full redemption, and we may experience and enjoy this redemption. 

V. Christ as the Word of God speaks for God through His becoming the anointing Spirit for the transformation of God's redeemed people into stones for the building of God's house organically for the New Testament

1 Corinthians 15:45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul”; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.

In His becoming the anointing, life-giving, and transforming Spirit, Christ speaks to us how God carries out His economy organically by His divine life for His divine purpose according to His heart's desire. therefore, we need to be watchful to not allow anything in our daily living to replace Christ as the anointing Spirit in our spirit. we have the Spirit, and the anointing within us. if we are anti the anointing, we are in the pricinple of antichrist. we may go against the anointing, or we may replace this anointing with something else. if we replace Christ with something of our own behavior and character, we are practiciting the principle of antichrist in the sense of allowing certain things to replace Christ HImself. 

VI. Christ as the Word of God speaks for God through His becoming the ladder that brings heaven (God) to earth (man) snf joins earth (man) to heaven (God) as one for God's building

Christ, in His being the heavenly ladder at Bethel, speaks to us how God desires to have a house on the earth, constituted with His redeemed and transformed elect, so that He may bring heaven to earth and join earth to heaven, to make the two as one for eternity. Jacob's dream in Genesis 28 is a revelation of Christ, for Christ is the reality of the ladder that Jacob saw at Bethel, the house of God. 

our regenerated spirit is today's Bethel, the dwelling place of God, also the base on earth where Christ as the heavenly ladder has been set up. whenever we turn to our spirit, we can experience this heavenly and mystical ladder, who is Christ Himself, bring heaven to us and joining us to heaven. 

Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (1) - 4

Message Title: The Kingdom as the Subduing of Rebellion and as the Transfiguration of the Lord Jesus

two crucial words: subduing and transformation 

Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.

Genesis 1:26 is the first place in the Bible where mentions the word "subdue". as man, we are created to subdue all the negative things on the earth, that is to subdue Satan and his works on the earth. 

we need to see the difference between the work of mere saving souls and the work of God. God's need and work is to subdue the enemey, so that the way on the earth is open for His kingdom to be manifested. we are on this earty not merely for man's need, but even more for God's need. we are created to subdue the enemy, to subdue the earth. surely to preach the gospel is crucial, and should not be neglected. but if we are just doing the gospel preaching to save some sinners, this is not enough for Satan to suffer loss. to save souls satisfy man's need, but to deal with Satan satisfy God's need, and our life should be contributed to this. 

from God's view, a kingdom is a realm where He can govern for His will to be done and His purpose to be accomplished. if there is no such a realm, how can God carry out His work. therefore, there must be the kingdom where God can rule and reign. on the other aspect, the kingdom of God is actually q person, Christ Himself, as revealed in Luke chapter 17.  as shown in Ephesians 3:17, this Christ is making His home in our hearts, which means that the kingdom, which is Christ Himself, is in us. the outcome will be that, we will seek God's kingdom first. 

Matthew 6:33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

the key word here is "first". we are all seeking something, but we need to "first" seek His kingdom and His righteousness. 

I. The kingdom of God is the power to subdue rebellion

there are two great principles in the universe -  God's authority and Satan's rebellion. the unique controversy between God and Satan concerns authority and rebellion. Rebellion is the denial of God's authority and the rejection of God's rule. when man sinned, he rebelled against God, denied God's authority, and rejected God's rule. 

God will not let this rebellion continue. He will establish His kingdom on the earth. the kingdom of God is a divine realm where God can exercise His authority to work out His plan. 

Mark 3:27 But no one can enter into the house of the strong man and thoroughly plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will thoroughly plunder his house.

God has His house, which is the church. but Satan also has a house where millions of millions are kept in his house. in the four Gospels, we can see that the Lord bound Satan, the strong man, and entered into His house to plunder his goods so that sinner might be brouhgt into the house of God through regeneration for the kingdom of God. we need to pray for those who are still in Satan's house. "Lord, destroy Satan's kingdom, and bring in the kingdom of God."

in Mark 4:35-41 thre is the picture of rebellion and of the kingdom of God as the power to subdue rebellion. the fallen angels in the air and the demons in the water collaborated to frustrate the Lord Jesus from going to the other side of the sea because they knew that He would cast out the demons there. the Lord rebuked the wind and commanded the sea to be silent because of the rebellious angels and demons who were behind the scene. after He rebuked the wind and spoke to the sea, the wind ceased, and there was a great calm, for the rebellion of the evil angels and the demons had been subdued by the power of the kingdom. this also gives us the indication how we can pray to cooperate the Lord for the subduing. we can participate, especially through our prayer by the power of the kingdom to subdue so many negative things. we need the Lord to train us to pray in this way. 

II. the kingdom of God is the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus

the kingdom of God is the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus, the shinging of the reality of the Lord Jesus. for the Lord Jesus to be transfigured means that His humanity was saturated and permeated with His divinity. this transfiguration, this glorification is equal to His coming in His kingdom. this transfiguration is also going on within each of us, His kingdom people, to bring us more and more into the reality of the kingdom. "Lord, shine in us. Your shining brings in the kingdom." 

Matthew 13:43 Then the righteous will shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. 

Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (1) - 3

Message Title: Discipling All the Nations by Baptizin Them into the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit

Matthew 1:1 The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham:

the beginning of the gospel of Matthew mentions Jesus Christ, the Son of David, and then the Son of Abraham. this shows us that in order for us to receive the gospel of the kingdom, we need to first experience as the King, the ruling of King, before we can become sons of Abraham. then later on, both John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus proclaimed "repent, for the kingdom of the heavens is near." we need to repent for the kingsom's sake. the basic elements of the gospel is not love or grace, but righteousness, which is related to God's kingdom with God's authority. Man became fallen not because of sin, but because of rebellion. Man needs to be brought back to the right position with God, under His ruling and kingship. therefore, the salvation presented to us in the New Testament is first received by us by our coming to the King, by our meeting the King, by our being subdued by the King, so that we are under His ruling, under His reigning, then we can receive the life. 

Matthw 28:19 Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

God desires to have the kingdom. but in order to have the kingdom, He must have the disciples, who are the constituents of the kingdom. this is why the gospel of Matthew, the gospel of the kingdom, ended in such a way, with the charge of discipling the nations. Unless He has the kingdom, there is no realm, no sphere for the Lord to carry out His economy. 

I. "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth" - Matthew 28:18

God is the supreme authority, and He has all authority. we need to acknowledge and recognise that there is authority in this universe and God is the supreme authority. God is the One who has absolute authority. everything that happens in our life has been approved and allowed by God, so we have to submit ourselves to God's authority. if we want to go on with the Lord and grow in Him, this is the first matter we have to resolve in our Christian life. God is the absolute supreme authority. 

Also, under God, the supreme authority, there are many deputy authorities. the world is full of rebellion and there is no concept of authority. but, here in the church, as His kingdom people, we must realise there is authority. God is the absoute authority, and God has also put many on this earth as His deputy authorities to whom we also need to submit. 

after the resurrection, the man Jesus, was given authority in heaven and on earth. as a man, the Lord submitted Himself to be under authority, learned obedience, submitted to Father's will. after His death and resurrection, He, as the God-man Jesus received all authority in heaven and on earth. 

as the Head of the Body, the church, as His enlargement, we, the church can share the authority with Him, our glorious Head. as His church, we are identified, one with this resurrected Christ. 

II. "Go therefore and disciole all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" - Matthew 28:19

in the other gospels, the Lord said to go to preach the gospel, or go to announce the glad tidings. but here the Lord used the word "go and disciple". because the heavenly King has received all the authority, He sends out His disciples to go and disciple all the nations. we need to be the going ones. but before we can go, we first need to be sent. the heavenly King wants to send us, so that we go with His authority. 

to disciple the nations is to make the heathen the kingdom people for the establishing of His kingdom, which is the church, on the earth. we are not just evangelizing and save some souls. furthermore, we are discipling the nations for the establishment of the kingdom. what does it mean to disciple? 

the disciples are the constituents of the kingdom. if we are merely sinners saved by grace, we are not qualified to be the constituents of the kingdom of the heavens. God not only wants sinners to be saved, but more, the disciples to be brought into the church life today, so that many churches will be raised up in many cities on earth. 

the first step of discipling the nations is to baptize people. Baptism brings the repentant people out of their old state into a new one by terminating their old life and germinating them with the new life of Christ that they may become the kingdom people. they are not baptised into any organization or membership, but into a person, the wonderful Triune God, into the union with Triune God. therefore, baptism is not a ritual or formality. Bapism is a very important step for a believer, after believing into the Lord, to declare and to testify, through baptism, for them to participate God's salvation in full. 

accoding to the gospel of Matthew, being baptized into the reality of the Father, the Son, and he Spirit is for the constituting of the kingdom of the heavens. the heavenly kingdom can be constituted only with people who have been immersed into the union with the Triune God and who have been estalished and built up with the Triune God, who has been wrought into them. 

III. "Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you all the days until the consummation of the age" - Matthew 28:20

this teaching is the healthy teaching, the apostles' teaching in the New Testament, the teaching of God's economy. this teaching preserves us in the central line of God's purpose. this teaching is also needed for the discipling of the nations. 

Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (1) - 2

Message Title: Christ as the One with the Heavenly-ruled Deeds, Our Shepherd, Our Rest, and the Sower

all these four points are all taken from the book of Matthew, which are wonderful and revealing. we can use four words to describe the sweetness of these four points:

1. healing: belive + touch

2. shepherding: experience + enjoy

3. resting: come + take

4. growing: condition + supply

I. Christ is revealed as the One with the heavenly-ruled deeds -  the fringe of His garment

Matthew 9:20 And behold, a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years approached from behind and touched the fringe of His garment,

Matthew 9:21 For she said within herself, If only I touch His garment, I will be healed.

Mathew 9:22 And Jesus, turning and seeing her, said, Take courage, daughter; your faith has healed you. And the woman was healed from that hour.

it is quite meaningful that during that time, a lot of people were surrounding the Lord, but the Lord only felt this one touch of this woman. from this story, we can see that in the Lord's human virtue, there was healing power. why in His human virtue? because the woman's problem was in the humanity, in the fallen humanity. because of the fall of Adam, all of us fell in our humanity. in our fallen humanity, there are full of problems and sicknesses. therefore, our huamanity needs to be restored and saved. we need the humanity of Jesus. as soon as the woman touched the fringe of the Lord's garment, the power of healing went out from the Lord to that woman. the Lord's healing power was already and always ready to be touched by us, the sinners, so that His healing power and be transfused into us, which becomes our healing. so we should be like the woman, we believe and we touch! we just need to exercise our little faith. like that woman, we can pray: " Lord, I believe. I believe i just need to touch the fringe of Your garment, and I will be healed. Lord I open to You and touch You."

Christ's garment signifies His righteous deeds, and the fringe signifies the heavenly ruling. as children of God, our conduct and behavior should be under the ruling, governing and binding of the heavenly government, limitation, and regulation. and this is the most beautiful and the best conduct, which is acknowledged and enjoyed by God.

II. the Lord Jesus is our Shepherd, and we are His sheep

in order to understand Psalm 23, we need to read the three psalms, 22, 23, and 24 as a group. Psalm 23 shows us the five stages of the shepherding of the resurrected Christ:

1. He shepherds us in the initial stage of the enjoyment of Christ as the green pastures and of the Spirit as the waters of rest

2. He shepherds us in the second stage of the revival and transformation on the paths of righteousness

3. He shepherds us in the third stage of the experience of the presence of the resurrected pneumatic Christ while walking through the valle of the shadow of death. such experiences are necessary for us to experience deeper, dearer, and sweeter presence of the Lord. through such experiences, we are pressed to only the Lord Himself, finding nowhere else we can go, but only go to the Lord to seek Him. 

4. He shepherds us in the fourth stage of the deeper and higher enjoyment of the resurrected Christ, in fighting against the adversary. the shepherding is to shepherd us in the warfare, in the battle, against the enemy

5. He shepherds us in the fifth stage of the lifelong enjoyment of the divine goodness and lovingkindness in the house of Jehovah. goodness refers to the grace of Christ, lovingkindness refers to the love of the Father, and follow implies the fellowship of the Spirit; thus, the grace of the Son, the love of the Father, and the fellowship of the Spirit are with us. 

Psalm 27:4 One thing I have asked from Jehovah; / That do I seek: / To dwell in the house of Jehovah / All the days of my life, / To behold the beauty of Jehovah, / And to inquire in His temple.

Psalm 27:5 For He will conceal me in His shelter / In the day of trouble; / He will hide me in the hiding place of His tent; / He will raise me up upon a rock.

Psalm 27:6 And now my head is lifted up / Above my enemies who surround me. / And I will offer in His tent / Sacrifices of shouts of joy: / I will sing and psalm to Jehovah.

we need to seek to dwell in the house of God all the days of our life to :

1. behold the beauty of God

2. inquire of God, checking with Him about everything in our daily life

3. be concealed in God's shelter and to hide ourselves in the hiding place of God

4. be raised up and have our head lifted up by God

5. offer sacrifices of shouts of joy

III. the Lord Jesus is our rest

Matthew 11:28 Come to Me all who toil and are burdened, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Matthew 11:30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

all of the people on the earth are toiling and are burdeded, even are enslaved with no rest. the Lord Jesus is our rest, and He is calling us to find rest in Him. so our job is to come to the Lord and to take the Lord as our rest. 

to take the Lord's yoke is to take the will of the Father; it is not to be regulated or controlled by any work, but to be constrained by the will of the Father. to learn from Him is not to imitate Him outwardly but to copy the Lord in our spirit by taking His yoke - God's will; God's will has to yoke us, and we have to put our neck into this yoke to become His duplication. 

IV. the Sower is the wonderful person of the Lord Jesus, and the seed sown is also the Lord Himself as the embodiment of the Triune God

we need to see the vision of Christ, the Sower, sowing Himself as the seed of life into human beings; this is related to the desire of the Lord's heart. His desire is to come into us, His chosen people, to be our life in the way of mingling in order to make Himself our element and to make us His expression. we, the believers are the farm of God, where God is growing the seed of life sown into us to produce the precious materials for God's building. 

Ephesians 3:17 That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

the process for Christ to make His home in our hearts, is also the process for the seed of life which has been sown into us by Christ to grow within our heart, which is the building of God. the soil for the seed to grow is our heart, where we can afford opportunities for the seed to grow, by conditioning our heart to be good soil, the good place for the seed to grow. if we pay attention to our spirit and exercise our spirit, we will supply something to Christ for Him to make home in our hearts. if we are going to have the Lord as the seed of life grow within us to be our full enjoyment, we have to open to the Lord absolutely and cooperate with Him to deal thoroughly with our heart. 

Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (1) - 1

Message Title: Christ as the Great Light, the One who has Authority, the Physician, the Bridegroom, the Unfulled Cloth, and the New Wine

what is the intrinsic significance of this title, "Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ"? 

this is about the heart of the divine revelation, and the central thought of God's eternal economy. and our experience and enjoyment of Christ is for the corporate expresson of Christ as the organic Body of Christ, consummating in the New Jerusalem as the ultimate expression of Christ. 

Philippians 2:2 Make my joy full, that you think the same thing, having the same love, joined in soul, thinking the one thing,

what is the "one thing". the "one thing" is the subjective experience of Christ as our enjoyment. our mind should focus, concentrate on the subjective experience of Christ for our enjoyment. 

the experience of Christ is mainly in our spirit, and the enjoyment of Christ is mainly in our soul. so Paul says here in 2:2, we need to be one in soul, thinking the one thing. in order to be thinking the one thing, we need the mind of Christ to be in our mind, so that we can be one with another in mind. we can pray a short prayer: " Lord, let your inward parts to be duplicated in our inward parts." 

it is possible for us to have the experience without the enjoyment. this is like little children eating healthy food, such as vegetables but do not like eating them. 

our enjoyment of Christ need to be sufficient and adequate. we need to pray to the Lord, "Lord, grang me more enjoyment of Christ."  our goal should be the full enjoyment of Christ and the full gaining of Christ. 

I. Christ is the great light shining on those sitting in darkness and rising on those sitting in the region and shadow of death

John  12:36 While you have the light, believe into the light, so that you may become sons of light. Jesus said these things, and He went away and was hidden from them. 

God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. therefore, as the children of God, we are sons of light. one of the way for us to enjoy God as our portion is that we need to walk in the light. in His presence we enjoy Christ as our allotted portion. 

Malachi 4:2 But unto you who fear My name will the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings, and you will go forth and leap about like well-fed calves.

as the Sun of righteousness, He has healing in His wings, which is the rays of His shining. when He shines on us, He is the light of life, so His shining in us as the sun is for our growth in life, and for the dispersing of the darkness in our being. Also, the healing in His wings is the healing in life to annul any unrighteousness in our being. 

II. the centurion saw that the Lord was One who had authority because the Lord was a man under authority

the centurion was a man under authority so he could have authority to command those who were under his authority. and the centurion recognised that the Lord was also such a man under authority. as a man, the Lord rejected His natural humanity and lived a human life under the restriction of the divine life of the heavenly Father. 

III. In calling people to follow Him for the kingdom, the Lord Jesus as the King of the heavenly kingdom ministered as a Physician

Matthew 9:12 Now when He heard this, He said, Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are ill.

Matthew 9:13 But go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice,” for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

a judge's judgement is according to righteousness, whereas a physician's healing is according to mercy and grace. if the Lord had visited us pitiful people as a Judge, we all would have been condemned and rejected, and none of us would have been qualified, selected, and called to be the people of His heavenly kingdom. However, the Lord came to minister as a Physician, to heal, recover, enliven, and save us that we might be reconstituted to be His new and heavenly citizens, with whom He could establish His heavenly kingdom. 

therefore, in our preaching the gospel, we should not present the Lord as a Judge, but as a Physician coming to be a friend of sinners and tax collectors. 

IV. Christ is our Bridegroom

a bridegroom is the most pleasant person. the Lord came as a Physician to heal us, then He made us the sons of the bridechamber, eventually, He will make us His bride. 

V. Christ the unfulled cloth and our new garment

Matthew 9:16 No one puts a patch of unfulled cloth on an old garment, for that which fills it up pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear is made.

we always want to improve our natural life. we look at the living of Jesus, and then we start to imitate His living, and we even pray to the Lord to help us in our self-improvement. this will only make a "worse tear" in us. as the kingdom people, we should not do this. instead, we take the crucified and resurrected Christ as our new garment to cover us as our righteousness before God. 

VI. Christ is our new wine to be put into fresh wineskins

Christ is new in time, recent, and newly possessed. Christ as the new, cheering life with cheering strength that strengthens us, and makes us very happy. the fresh wineskins signify the church life in the local churches as the container of the new wine, which is Christ Himself as the exciting life. 

Fighting the Good Fight, Finishing the Course, Keeping the Faith, and Loving the Lord's Appearing -3

Message Title: Keeping the Faith

I. In the New Testament, faith is both objective and subjective

Ephesians 4:13 Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

the faith in Ephesians 4:13 is not faith as a believing action but the objective faith. the objective faith refers to the subject of our believing, that is, to the things in which we believe; this objective faith includes the contents of God's New Testament economy.

subjective faith has to do with our action of beliving. 

these two aspects of faith involve one another. Our beliving (subjective faith) is out of the things we believe and in the things we believe (objective faith).

1 Thessalonians 3:2 And we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and encourage you for the sake of your faith,

when we attend the church meetings, listen to the ministry, we can receive more the obejective faith, the contents of God's economy. therefore, regardless what we are going through in our situations, our faith will not be shaken. 

2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith.

to keep the faith is to keep the entire New Testament economy of God - the faith concerning Christ as the embodiment of God and the mystery of God and the church as the Body of Christ and the mystery of Christ.  

Jude 20 But you, beloved, building up yourselves upon your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,

to keep the faith is not just passive to not lose the faith. but we need to actively use our faith as the building material. the healthy teaching is to infuse the truth as faith into us. when we listen to the truth, the Spirit will operate to coodinate with the word of truth, the result of which is that the subjective faith will be produced within us. 

when we receive the obejective faith through our hearing of the word of Christ, which produces within us the appreciation of Christ, this objective faith must also proceed to become subjective faith. at times we may feel that we have so little faith within us that we cannot believe anymore. this is the indication that we have not been receiving enough objective truth. this should cause us to hunger for the word of the truth, to come more to church meetings, for the hearing of faith. 

1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith; lay hold on the eternal life, to which you were called and have confessed the good confession before many witnesses.

to fight for the faith means to fight for God's New Testamony economy. to fight the good fight of the faith is to fight for the contents of the complete gospel according to God's New Testament economy. today at this corrupted age, many heresies, or evil teachings have become very popular, while the word of truth has become super rare. therefore, we need to rise up to proclaim the word of the truth to fight the good fight of the faith. 

to fight the good fight of the faith in the Christian life, we need to lay hold on the eternal life, the divine life, not trusting in our human life. 

II. A proper Chrsitian life involves keeping te faith for participation in the divine riches in God's economy. 

God's economy, which is to dispense Himself into His chosen people, is not a matter in the natural realm nor in the work of the law but in the spiritual sphere of the new creation through regneration by faith in Christ. when faith comes, we have been delivered from the realm of law, but into this spiritual sphere to become the new creation. 

by faith, we are born of God to be His sons, partaking of His life and nature to express Him. by faith we are put into Christ to become members of the Body, sharing all that He is for His expression. to be regenerate is a once-for-all matter, but to partake of the divine life and nature is a day by day matter. 

1 Timothy 3:9 Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.

the mystery of faith is mainly Christ as the mystery of God and the church as the mystery of Christ. 

do we have a pure consience? are we holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience? 

Jude 3 Beloved, while using all diligence to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you and exhort you to earnestly contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

the faith here in Jude 3 refers to the objective faith which has been delivered to us once for all, denoting the contents of the New Testament as our faith, in which we believe for our common salvation. today, many argue over certain doctrines. we are not fighint for mere doctrines, but we need to contend for the faith, which matters our common salvation. 

Ephesians 4:13 Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

after we have received the objective faith, we still need to grow in life, until we arrive at the oneness of the faith. the oneness of the faith depends on our full knowledge of the Son of God.