EXPERIENCING, ENJOYING, AND EXPRESSING CHRIST (1)

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

Scripture Reading: John 7:2, 37-39; Lev. 23:39-43

I.　We can enjoy Christ as the Feast of Tabernacles—John 7:2; Lev. 23:39-43:

A.　The Feast of the Passover signifies Christ as the initiation of God's redemption judicially, and the Feast of Tabernacles signifies Christ as the consummation of God's full salvation organically— John 6:4; 7:2; Lev. 23:5, 34.

B.　God ordained the Feast of Tabernacles so that the children of Israel would remember how their forefathers had lived in tents (tabernacles) in their wandering in the wilderness; the word Tabernacles in the title of the Feast of Tabernacles implies the thought of remembrance—Deut. 16:13-15.

C.　Their coming together for this feast to worship God and enjoy their produce from the good land is a real picture of blending.

D.　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.

E.　Our enjoyment of Christ today as the Feast of Tabernacles, in our corporate coming together for blending to enjoy the riches of Christ as the produce of the good land, reminds us that we are still in the wilderness and need to enter into the rest of the New Jerusalem, which is the eternal tabernacle—Rev. 21:2-3.

F.　The New Jerusalem being called the tabernacle of God is for the overcomers in the first stage of the New Jerusalem to remember how they also dwelt 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—Heb. 11:9-10, 13:

1.　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—Rom. 4:12; Heb. 11:9; Gen. 12:7-8; 13:3-4, 18:

a.　Building an altar means that our life is for God, that God is our life, and that the meaning of our life is God—Exo. 40:6, 29; Psa. 43:4a; Lev. 1:3, 9.

b.　Abraham's dwelling in a tent testified that he did not belong to the world but lived the life of a sojourner on earth; erecting a tent is an expression, a declaration, that we do not belong to this world, that we belong to another country—Heb. 11:9-10, 15-16.

2.　As the true descendants of Abraham (Gal. 3:7), we should be pilgrims on the earth, moving and pitching our tent as he did (Heb. 11:9, 13; 1 Pet. 2:11).

3.　After Abraham built his first altar (Gen. 12:7), he built a second altar between Bethel and Ai, which stand in contrast to each other (v. 8):

a.　Bethel means "house of God," and Ai means "a heap of ruins."

b.　In the eyes of the called ones, only Bethel, the church life, is worthwhile; everything else is a heap of ruins.

4.　Abraham had his failures, and there was the forsaking of the altar and the tent; however, with him there was a recovery, and recovery is a matter of returning to the altar and the tent with calling on the name of the Lord—vv. 9-10; 13:3-4; Rom. 10:12-13; 12:1-2.

5.　Eventually, at Hebron Abraham's tent became a place where he had fellowship with God and where God could fellowship with him—Gen. 13:18.

6.　Abraham's tent with the altar built by him was a prefigure of the Tabernacle of the Testimony with the altar built by the children of Israel—Exo. 38:21.

7.　Abraham, a stranger and a sojourner, "eagerly waited for the city which has the foundations, whose Architect and Builder is God"—Heb. 11:9-10, 12-16.

8.　Abraham's tent was a miniature of the New Jerusalem, the ultimate tent, the ultimate tabernacle of God—Gen. 9:26-27; 12:8; 13:3; 18:1; Rev. 21:2-3.

9.　As we are living in the "tent" of the church life, we are waiting for its ultimate consummation—the ultimate "Tent of Meeting," the New Jerusalem—1 Tim. 3:15; Lev. 1:1; Heb. 11:10.

G.　The Feast of Tabernacles is the enjoyment of the New Jerusalem, which will be consummated first to be the firstfruits in the millennial kingdom as a reward to the overcomers and then consummated finally to be in the new heaven and new earth as the full enjoyment of God's full salvation to all the perfected believers.

II.　Through and in His resurrection, Christ as the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit to impart life and to enter into His believers to flow out as rivers of living water—John 7:37-39; Rev. 21:6; 22:17:

A.　The life-giving Spirit is the consummated Spirit, the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God—2 Cor. 3:17-18; Gal. 3:14; Phil. 1:19:

1.　The consummated Spirit is the Triune God after He has passed through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection—John 7:39:

a.　The process through which the Triune God has passed to become the Spirit is an economical, not essential, matter— 1:14; Heb. 9:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b.

b.　Processed refers to the steps through which the Triune God has passed in the divine economy; consummated indicates that the process has been completed; and the consummated Spirit implies that the Spirit of God has been processed and has become the consummated Spirit—John 7:39.

2.　Before the Lord Jesus was crucified and resurrected, the consummated Spirit was "not yet"—v. 39:

a.　The Spirit of God was there from the beginning (Gen. 1:2), but the Spirit as "the Spirit of Christ" (Rom. 8:9), "the Spirit of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:19), was "not yet" at the time of John 7:39, because the Lord Jesus was not yet glorified.

b.　The Lord Jesus was glorified when He was resurrected, and through this glorification the Spirit of God became the Spirit of the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Jesus Christ—Luke 24:26; Phil. 1:19.

c.　The last Adam, who was Christ in the flesh, became the life-giving Spirit in resurrection; since then, the Spirit of Jesus Christ has both the divine and human elements, including the reality of the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ—1 Cor. 15:45b; Acts 16:7; Rom. 8:9.

3.　The consummated Spirit was breathed as the holy breath into the disciples by the Son in resurrection—John 20:22:

a.　The Gospel of John reveals that Christ became flesh to be the Lamb of God and that in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit; thus, in His resurrection He breathed Himself as the consummated Spirit into the disciples— 1:29; 20:22.

b.　It is as the Spirit that He was breathed into His disciples; it is as the Spirit that He can live in the disciples and enable them to live by Him and with Him and that He can abide in them and enable them to abide in Him—v. 22; 14:19-20; 15:4-5.

c.　The Christ who breathed Himself into the disciples is the life-giving Spirit—1 Cor. 15:45b.

B.　The life-giving Spirit is the compound Spirit, typified by the compound anointing ointment with its ingredients—Exo. 30:23-25; 1 John 2:20, 27:

1.　Olive oil signifies the Spirit of God with divinity.

2.　Myrrh signifies the precious death of Christ.

3.　Cinnamon signifies the sweetness and effectiveness of Christ's death.

4.　Calamus signifies the precious resurrection of Christ.

5.　Cassia signifies the repelling power of Christ's resurrection.

C.　The life-giving Spirit is the Lord Spirit, the pneumatic Christ, for the metabolic transformation of the believers and for the growth and building up of the Body of Christ—2 Cor. 3:17-18; 1 Cor. 3:6, 9b, 12a; Eph. 4:16b.

D.　The normal Christian life depends upon our knowing and experiencing the Spirit; without Christ being the life-giving Spirit, we cannot experience anything of God in His economy—1 John 5:6; John 16:13; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2:10; 6:17.