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.