总题：基督徒生活、召会生活、这世代的终结以及主的来临
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE, THE CHURCH LIFE, THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE, AND THE COMING OF THE LORD
Message Six
Entering into the Intrinsic Significance of the Reality of the Body of Christ— the Highest Peak in God's Economy and the Top Revelation of the Bible
Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:17, 22-23; 3:3-5, 9; 1 Cor. 12:12, 24-27; 2 Cor. 11:28-29; Rom. 12:3-5
I. The reality of the Body of Christ is the highest peak in God's economy and the top revelation of the Bible, revealed through a spirit of wisdom and revelation—Eph. 1:17, 22-23:
A. We need revelation to know the reality of the Body of Christ and to enter into the realm and intrinsic significance of the reality of the Body of Christ as God's heart's desire and His ultimate purpose—vv. 5, 9-11, 22-23; Rom. 12:1-2.
B. Only a revelation from God will usher us into the realm of the reality of the Body of Christ, and only then will the Body become our experience—Acts 9:1-5, 15; 26:18-19; Eph. 1:17-23; 3:3-5, 9; 1 Cor. 12:12.
C. The secret of seeing the heavenly vision of God's ultimate purpose is our willingness to pay the price for it—Matt. 5:3, 8; 6:22; Psa. 25:9, 14; Rev. 3:18.
II. The overcomers typified by Zion are the reality of the Body of Christ and consummate the building up of the Body in the local churches to bring in the consummated holy city, New Jerusalem, the Holy of Holies as God's dwelling place in eternity; in the new heaven and new earth, the entire New Jerusalem will become Zion, with all the believers as the overcomers—21:1-3, 7, 16, 22:
A. The overcomers typified by Zion as the reality of the Body of Christ are the high peak, the center, the uplifting, the strengthening, the enriching, the beauty, and the reality of the church—Psa. 48:2, 11-12; 50:2; 20:2; 53:6a.
B. The characteristics, the life, the blessing, and the establishment of Jerusalem (the church) come from Zion (the overcomers):
1. In 1 Kings 8:1 the elders were in Jerusalem, and the Ark of the Covenant was in Zion.
2. Psalm 51:18 says that God did His good pleasure unto Zion and built the walls of Jerusalem.
3. Psalm 102:21 says that the name of Jehovah was declared in Zion and that His praise was declared in Jerusalem.
4. Psalm 128:5 says that Jehovah blessed from Zion and that the prosperity was seen in Jerusalem.
5. Psalm 135:21 says that Jehovah dwelt in Jerusalem but that He was to be blessed from Zion.
6. In Isaiah 41:27 the word was first announced to Zion and then preached to Jerusalem.
7. Joel 3:17 says that when God dwelt in Zion, Jerusalem would be holy.
8. Today God is looking for the one hundred and forty-four thousand amidst the defeated church, those who will stand on Mount Zion—Rev. 14:1-5.
C. God always uses a small number of believers to pass on the flow of life to the church and to revive the church; on behalf of the church, the overcomers take the stand of Christ's victory in the midst of sufferings; we need to ask God to operate in us the willingness to let ourselves be conquered, captured, and defeated by Christ so that He can be the Victor in our experience—Phil. 2:13; 2 Cor. 2:12-14.
D. In typology the overcomers, the perfected and matured God-men, are today's Zion within today's Jerusalem (the church life)—Heb. 12:22; Rev. 14:1-5:
1. Within the church life there must be a group of overcomers, and these over comers are today's Zion.
2. Without Zion (the overcomers), Jerusalem (the church life) cannot be kept and maintained; if there are no overcomers in a local church, that church is like Jerusalem without Zion; it will become like a flat tire.
E. The Lord's recovery is to build up Zion—the overcomers as the reality of the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem; in the church life we must endeavor to reach today's Zion—Eph. 1:22-23; 4:16; 1 Cor. 1:2; 12:27; Rev. 14:1; 21:2; Psa. 84:5.
F. The reality of the Body of Christ is the corporate living by the perfected Godmen, the overcomers, who are genuine men not living by their life but by the life of the processed God, whose attributes have been expressed through their virtues—Phil. 4:5-9:
1. The Lord urgently needs the overcomers with their God-man living as the reality of the Body of Christ to be expressed in the local churches; unless there is a substantial expression of the Body, the Lord Jesus will not return—Eph. 1:22-23; 4:16; 5:27, 30; Rev. 19:7.
2. The Lord needs the overcomers to carry out the economy of God in order to have the Body of Christ and to destroy His enemy; without the overcomers, the Body of Christ cannot be built up, and unless the Body of Christ is built up, Christ cannot come back for His bride—Eph. 1:10; 3:10; Rev. 12:11; 19:7-9.
III. In order to live together with other members in the reality of the Body of Christ, we all need to have the consciousness of the Body of Christ—1 Cor. 12:24-27; 2 Cor. 11:28-29:
A. "When Brother Nee taught about the Body, he said that with whatever we do, we have to consider how the churches would feel about it"—The Problems Causing the Turmoils in the Church Life, pp. 28-29.
B. In the Body there can be no independence or individualism, for we are members, and members cannot live in detachment from the Body—1 Cor. 12:27; Rom. 12:5; Eph. 5:30.
C. Our living with all that we have is in the Body, through the Body, and for the Body; this is the kind of person God is looking for today; may the Lord deliver us from individualism.
D. Those who see that they are members of the Body treasure the Body and honor the other members; in the Body of Christ everyone is a member and nothing more than a member; hence, no member can live without the other members, much less despise them—1 Cor. 12:15, 21, 23-24; Rom. 12:3; Phil. 2:29; 1 Cor. 16:18; Judg. 9:9.
E. Every member has a function, and all the functions are for the Body; the function of one member is the function of the whole Body; for this reason we should not imitate other members or be covetous of other members (1 Cor. 12:15); at the same time we should not despise other members, thinking that we are better and more useful (v. 21); every believer is a member in the Body of Christ, and every believer is indispensable.
F. All the names mentioned by Paul in Colossians 4:7-17 indicate that with him there was a sense, a consciousness, of the Body as the one new man:
1. All the names also show that there should be no differences among the churches—what Paul wrote to the Colossians was also for the Laodiceans, and what he wrote to the Laodiceans was for the Colossians; what fellowship, oneness, harmony, and intimate contact this implies!
2. Paul charged Tychicus to make known to the Colossians all that concerned him because of his consciousness of the Body as the one new man.
G. It is essential for the growth and development of the Body that we each recognize our measure and not go beyond it; we should learn to be blended with other brothers and sisters—1 Cor. 12:15-18; 2 Cor. 10:13-14.
H. Every member should know his own capacity and not consider himself more highly than he ought; if everyone does this, there will be no jealousy, ambition, or craving to do what others can do—Phil. 2:2-4; Rom. 12:1-5.
I. Wherever there is Body-revelation, there is Body-consciousness, and wherever there is Body-consciousness, individualistic thought and action are ruled out:
1. If we want to know the Body, we need deliverance not only from our sinful life and our natural life but also from our individualistic life.
2. Seeing Christ results in deliverance from sin; seeing the Body results in deliverance from individualism; we cannot enter into the realm of the Body by anything other than seeing.
3. What we do not know, another member of the Body will know; what we cannot see, another member of the Body will see; what we cannot do, another member of the Body will do—1 Cor. 12:17-22.
4. If we refuse the help of our fellow members, we are refusing the help of Christ; sooner or later all individualistic Christians will dry up; the whole Body is built up through the interdependence among the members—v. 12.
5. Many of us have the experience that when we are dry and have no way to go on, we need other brothers and sisters to intercede for us before we can get through—Eph. 1:16; Col. 1:9; Phil. 1:19; 1 Thes. 5:25; 2 Thes. 3:1; Col. 4:3; Heb. 13:18.
IV. For the reality of the Body of Christ, God has blended the Body together (1 Cor. 12:24); the word blended means "adjusted," "harmonized," "tempered," and "mingled," implying the losing of distinctions; the purpose of the blending is to usher us all into the reality of the Body of Christ:
A. We need to be in the local churches as the procedure to be brought into the reality of the Body of Christ as the goal.
B. The highest peak of the Lord's recovery that can really, practically, and actually carry out God's economy is for God to produce not many local churches in a physical way but an organic Body to be His organism.
C. Paul's thought of the church being one bread (10:17) was not his own invention; rather, it was taken from the Old Testament with the meal offering (Lev. 2:4); every part of the flour of the meal offering was mingled with the oil—that is the blending.
D. Hardly anyone speaks about blending because this is not only very high and deep but also very mysterious; it is not a physical matter; the significance of our blending is the reality of the Body of Christ.
E. In order to be blended for the reality of the Body of Christ, we have to go through the cross and be by the Spirit to dispense Christ to others for the building up of the Body of Christ.
F. Blending means that we should always stop in order to fellowship with others; if we have the consciousness of the Body of Christ and are in the blending and reality of the Body of Christ, we will not do anything without fellowshipping with the other saints who are coordinating with us, because fellowship tempers us, fellowship adjusts us, fellowship harmonizes us, and fellowship mingles us.
G. Before a co-worker does anything, he should fellowship with the other co-workers; an elder should fellowship with the other elders; in our coordination in the church life, in the Lord's work, we all have to learn not to do anything without fellowship.
H. A group of responsible brothers may meet together often without being blended; to be blended means that we are touched by others and that we are touching others by going through the cross, doing things by the Spirit, and doing everything to dispense Christ for His Body's sake.
I. Such a blending is not social but the blending of the very Christ whom the individual members, the district churches, the co-workers, and the elders enjoy, experience, and partake of.
J. Blending is the Body, blending is the oneness, and blending is the one accord.
K. The blending is for the building up of the universal Body of Christ (Eph. 1:23) to consummate the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2) as the final goal of God's economy according to His good pleasure (Eph. 3:8-10; 1:9-10).