For the many friends who have not been
with us through the earlier gatherings, let me
say the very briefest possible word by way
of retrospect.
We have been led at this time to
be occupied with the revelation of Jesus Christ.
We feel that the Lord has led us
in this way with more than the object
of just studying something, but as related
to the movements toward the consummation of this
age, which we feel are so evidently taking
place.
And that therefore, in the final scenes, the
Lord is culminating and consummating his testimony on
this earth.
It is very necessary for his church to
be very clear as to their position.
And that position is essentially and inseparably a
matter of understanding exactly what the Christian life
and the Christian church is, and the testimony
which is entrusted to them.
So, we have spent nearly three days with
the first three chapters of the book of
the revelation, particularly noting that as that book
does bring to this culmination and consummation of
everything in the age, the Lord takes very
careful pains to give a full-orbed, clearly
defined presentation of his Son.
Significance of the very first chapter of that
book is that Christ overshadows everything.
Christ encompasses everything.
Christ stands before everything as the standard of
God.
And then all that follows, firstly in the
dealing with the church, and then with the
nations, and then with the kingdom of Satan,
and then the bringing in of the eternal
kingdom, all that is governed by what Christ
is, by that matchless presentation of himself.
I go over that again in order that
we may see where we are, the setting
of what we are seeing today.
It has been there that the main part
of our time has found us.
This morning, we went back over to the
Apostle Paul in this connection, and began to
consider the content of his words in the
second of his Corinthian letters, chapter 4, verses
5 and 6.
We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as
Lord.
Seeing it is God who said, Let light
be, who shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
This morning, we spent our time with the
beginning of what Paul saw in the face
of Jesus Christ.
We did note right at the outset that
what he saw or in seeing the face
of Jesus Christ simply means that the Spirit
of God gave him an inward illumination or
revelation of Christ.
What he saw in the face of Jesus
Christ brought about a tremendous revolution both in
his being and in his whole outlook.
And the first thing that he saw in
the face of Jesus Christ or in the
person of Jesus Christ was God's purpose.
Well, we spent our morning time on Christ
as the purpose of God.
This afternoon, we are going to be occupied
with the second thing that Paul saw in
the face of Jesus Christ.
That is, he saw Christ as God's pattern.
I'm going to be quite simple in the
way I speak and in what I say
this afternoon because there are many young Christians
here.
What I say or the way in which
I say it, I trust will help them
particularly, but I trust it will be, if
necessary, a corrective for us all.
It is exceedingly difficult to convey the impression
that must have come upon Paul when he
saw the Lord Jesus.
That time of which he speaks when he
said it, pleased God to reveal his Son
in me.
The tremendous effect that it had on that
man.
I wish it were possible to convey to
you something of that because it is not
in the terms, the language, or even in
the teaching.
It is in the impact that we shall
have the value.
You may hear all that I have to
say and missing that impact, it will be
of very little value.
I want you, therefore, to try to enter
into this in spirit.
You see, when Paul saw Jesus Christ by
revelation of the Holy Spirit, a whole system
collapsed for him.
It completely collapsed.
A whole mentality and way of thinking was
shut on upside down, inside out.
He had to go right away into the
desert and spend two or three years there
to think this thing out, to reconstruct everything
in the light of this.
It was indeed a revolution in that man.
And although we are Christians, and although we
have all the teaching of Paul and the
other apostles, we've got all the Christian tradition
of the centuries, I do feel, dear friends,
that there's the need of something like that
with us.
That we can have a system, a Christian
system, just as thorough, just as complete, just
as strong, with all its ramifications and paraphernalia
as the Jews had, without the tremendous impact
of it all.
We can have it all.
Christianity has become very largely only another Judaism
in that sense.
Another system.
I know it means much to you.
I take nothing from all the blessedness, reality
Christ is to you.
But still, I hold to this, that there's
a great need of a revolution, even in
the church and in Christianity at this time.
And the same kind of revolution caused by
the same kind of revelation as came to
the Apostle Paul.
I trust that you will at least begin
to see something of this as I go
on on simple lines this afternoon.
We have got to see, as Paul saw,
Jesus as God's pattern.
Jesus as God's model.
What Paul has shown us in his writings
is that he came to see that before
ever this world was created, before any of
this cosmic system was set up, God had
in view the constituting of a universe on
the basis of Sonship, His Son.
He was before all things.
He was God's appointed mind concerning all things.
And all things were to be made with
the embodiment of the spiritual and eternal features
of Christ.
And when God reaches His end, and we
come out with the work completed, finally the
thing that we'll obtain will be that in
everything perceptible, everything in the creation will revealing
something of Jesus Christ.
And oh, what a wonderful universe that will
be.
If we meet a little bit of Jesus
Christ anywhere in anyone today, what a blessed
thing it is.
But think of that being universal and nothing
else to it.
Now, that is what was in God's eye
and mind right back there in the eternity
past.
And so, God set in motion all the
creative processes and, by reason of necessity, all
the redemptive processes, all the elective processes, all
the sovereign and providential processes of history to
work out this pattern, to perfect this design,
all things according to Christ.
That's Paul's great phrase.
According to Christ.
According to Christ that controls everything.
Paul came to see that and that vision,
that perception and apprehension or regulation was the
governing motive, power and object of everything for
him, for me to live, said he, is
Christ.
Now then, we can break that up into
very simple questions and answers.
What is a Christian?
How interesting it would be if you were
handed out a half a sheet of notepaper,
all of you and asked to put down
your answer.
What is a Christian?
What is Paul's answer?
What would your answer be?
A person who believes certain things about the
Lord Jesus?
A person who has come to make Jesus
their savior?
Who has given himself or herself to Christ?
How would you put it?
But what is Paul's answer?
And that's the true one.
A Christian is a bit of Christ.
A bit of Christ.
Every true Christian is a bit of Christ.
We'll bear that out more fully as we
go along.
From God's standpoint now, and he has laid
the foundation for that, from God's standpoint now,
the only thing that concerns him, is of
interest to him in you, in me, as
Christians, as believers, is that bit of Christ
which we represent.
That's all he's concerned with, that we are
concerned.
The bit of Christ that we are.
He's concerned, first of all, to have it
as a bit of Christ.
And then he is concerned to enlarge it
to something more of Christ.
And to bring it to as full a
measure of Christ as he can.
And God's focus is upon the bit of
Christ that has been made a part of
us, that has been deposited in us by
new birth.
By new birth, God has deposited something of
Christ in us.
It may be a very much smaller thing
than all its surroundings.
And we are the surroundings.
But we are.
To begin with, it may be.
But it is of transcendentally greater intrinsic value
than all the rest.
To God, it is the value.
He's prepared to do anything in relation to
that.
And so, every true Christian, from God's standpoint,
is just a bit of his Son.
God has sent forth the Spirit of his
Son into our hearts.
Whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Now, I cannot gather up all the scripture
that proves that, shows how that is.
But that is the simple beginning.
What are you when you become a Christian?
What are you as a Christian?
What is it that makes you a Christian?
What is the Christian?
And the Christian life, what is it?
Well now, strip it of everything that has
been gathered around it.
Men say, this is what makes a Christian.
This and that, the other thing, comprises a
Christian.
Strip it of all that that has become
the accretion of Christianity.
And come right down to this.
A Christian is a bit of Christ.
Go about this world.
Get that mentality.
Realize that.
I am, not when I'm in the meeting
only, not when I'm with other Christians only,
but wherever I am, I'm a bit of
Christ.
In that measure, in that measure, where I
am, Christ is.
People have got to know it.
That it is not I, a professing Christian,
a religious person, a person who belongs to
Christianity, but I, in very reality, as a
bit of Christ himself.
I'm there.
For me, to live, is Christ.
Go on.
What is a church?
Now then, what was Paul's idea and mentality
about churches?
Do you really think that Paul set out
on a campaign to set up churches, to
bring churches into being, to build churches?
Do you think that?
Do you think that his vision and his
mission in his mind was to seed churches
set up all over the world?
Think about that again.
This is where we've got to rethink things.
You use the word church or churches, you're
only meaning companies of Christians.
You're only meaning groups in living together, gathering
together in certain places, on a basis of
corporate life.
I believe most strongly that the Apostle Paul
would repudiate the whole idea or suggestion that
he felt himself chosen of God to go
about this world setting up churches.
You ask him what his business was in
this matter?
Why?
After having got the individual parts of Christ
in gathering them together and constituting them local
companies, fellowships, churches if you like, you ask
him why?
He would simply answer you in the simplest
terms I believe and yet with very strong
feeling that there should be a larger expression
of Christ in that place.
And by as many bits of Christ brought
together as possible the measure of Christ should
be as strong in that place as possible.
In other words just that Christ should be
all the more there.
He's governed by this whole pattern of God
that Christ should fill all things.
And he saw that two is better than
one and three is better than two in
this matter.
And the more bits of Christ brought together
forgive me putting it like that I must
put it in simplest language the more bits
of Christ there are really brought together so
the stronger the impact of Christ in any
place.
No dear friends it is not God's idea
to set up churches or Christian fellowship centres
or that sort of thing institutions and what
not that's not his idea at all.
Let's clear the whole mind on this matter.
If any company of Christians fails in this
respect to be there a corporate and an
adequate expression of the Lord Jesus the presence
of Christ commensurate with their numbers or their
being there, they failed of the purpose of
their existence in that place.
There's no justification.
I believe that that is exactly why the
Lord sent to Ephesus as the representative church
in which all were included repent or I
will remove thy lampstand out of its place
although there were so many commendable things they
were things works labours yes toil things but
evidently the thing was lost sight of in
the things and the thing which alone justifies
gives meaning to any local company of the
Lord's people is that not the people and
not their procedure not their forms but Christ
Christ is Christ is found anybody who is
seeking Christ will find him there and whether
they're seeking him or not they'll meet him
if they go there it's Christ so Paul
would say Ephesus, Laodicea Thyatira, Sardis Corinth anywhere
I'm not out to set up a Christian
church there I'm out to bring Christ there
to have Christ there and the bringing together
of these and I use the word again
bits of Christ is only to increase the
measure of Christ and if you want evidence
from the other side that this is so
remember that the great enemy knows the implications
of Christ he knows the implications of the
presence of Christ and especially the presence of
Christ corporately expressed and if there's one thing
that the enemy has set himself to do
it is to destroy the fellowship of the
spirit to scatter the believers to divide them
to break up this unity of Christ because
he knows that on the one side weakens
Christ on the other side it strengthens his
kingdom well there's no argument there at all
there's no answer to that that's a fact
beyond any question at all that this matter
of the relatedness of Christians is the most
contended thing in this universe what are churches
why meet together just that nothing other in
the mind of God Christ is God's pattern
then what about those two great things that
belong to the church and the church's baptism
and the Lord's table what
are we well ask everywhere what kind of
a church are you and what do you
do well we believe in baptism various forms
given to the name at different times we
believe in and practice baptism you believe in
and practice baptism of infants you call it
you there believe in and practice baptism of
adults and believers you believe the little water
will do you believe a lot of water
is necessary however baptism is a part of
our order and system because we believe that
it's a new testament part of the Christian
church and all and all see you can
never never reach any conclusion of the whole
matter by arguing about the right and the
wrong of this method or this time don't
you try the only way in which to
settle this whole matter is to stand right
back and say what according to the revelation
of Jesus Christ in the new testament does
this thing really indicate and Paul will give
us undoubted light on this matter and he
will tell us an accumulation of statements by
him in this why baptism you want to
know what it is, yes it's right it's
right but it's not an ordinance, it's not
a ceremony, it is not a rite, it
is not a bit of a ritual baptism
is just the way in which Christians say
one whole thing has gone and Christ has
taken its place it's something that testifies to
the fact that now all the ground is
Christ's, we've died to all other ground everything
else has died and been buried and now
on this ground of resurrection it is only
Christ and if baptism doesn't mean that it
has no new testament meaning, you see it's
related to this one thing it is not
something to be just perpetuated and carried out
because it's something that they did at the
beginning it is something which has got to
be brought right up to date with every
new believer that they have definitely died and
been buried to all that is not Christ
and now they live and they live only
for Christ it is Christ I have been
crucified with Christ it is no longer I
but Christ that's utter isn't it so it's
not the thing it's the meaning what about
the Lord's table here again we believe in
the Lord's supper, the holy communion or the
Lord's table whatever phrase applies to the different
sections and we have it some once a
quarter and some once a month and some
once a week and that's our order and
our procedure and that's what we believe is
the way is that all we must have
we must have the Lord's table we must
have the Lord's supper because they did it
in New Testament times and it's quite clearly
the Lord's will it should be had it,
it, it see, that's where the whole thing
breaks down, it's an it it's something what
is the Lord's table what is the loaf
and the cup what
is the loaf and the cup it is
the churches and the believers continuous declaration that
Christ is their life they have no life
but Christ it's all Christ that's not going
to communion service you see the emptiness and
hollowness so much, the meaning is good all
well meant oh, oh power and presence of
Christ that's the thing that matters not the
ordinance not the maintenance of the order but
the living Christ Christ is our life and
that's not only individually and personally he is
that he is my life and my only
life bread and wine but he is the
life of the church he is corporate life
corporate life I earlier used that word bits
of Christ it's an awkward word pieces of
Christ fragments of Christ for when you take
the loaf and break and you all 20,
30, 50, 100, 200 have that piece of
the loaf is that a piece in itself
no it's the loaf in representation seeing that
we who are many are one loaf one
loaf one loaf one body Lord's table is
the declaration of that life which binds us,
joins us and binds us and holds us
together so that divisions in the church nullify
the very meaning of the Lord's table divisions
amongst believers rule out the very significance of
the loaf and the cup are a denial
of it cannot be when you come to
the Lord's table it's a contradiction because it
is Christ and Christ is not divided Christ
is not divided, Paul says that doesn't he
is Christ divided no Lord's table is then
representation of Christ as the abiding life of
the church until he comes until he comes
that testimony to Christ just Christ they say
oh when you come to the Lord's table
do remember that what are you doing just
going through something that is part of the
church form and order of Christian procedure oh
no I am here declaring one thing in
two ways firstly that Christ is my very
subsistence I have no life I have no
constitution I have no maintenance I have no
continuance apart from he is my existence I
declare that for myself but here is a
very certain thing I declare that my fellowship
with other believers in Christ is also my
life but Christ is my life collectively by
fellowship by oneness by the unity of the
spirit and that if I break that if
I break that or allow that to be
broken if I fail to try and repair
any breach between me and another child of
God I am simply saying that the Lord's
table is a mere form robbed of all
its meaning its real meaning and I am
strangling my own spiritual life I'm doing injury
to my own spiritual life because my life
is not only an individual life it's a
collective or corporate life we we depend for
our life upon one another brethren Satan will
rob us of our life by interfering with
our relationships be no mistake about it that
can be very easily prove John what
is ministry what is ministry now this doesn't
only apply to those who minister any who
minister can listen with all your ears but
those who are ministered to what is ministry
is it to make people know what the
Bible contains as its subject matter from Genesis
to Revelation well that's important very good in
some senses it may be necessary as a
foundation is it to get up addresses by
research and study and get it off on
to company of Christians oh I could go
on like that it's not pleasant what is
ministry any ministry and all ministry that does
not make possible and provide for an immediate
increase of the Lord Jesus is not the
ministry of the Holy Ghost is not the
ministry of Christ all ministry must have as
its immediate object the increase and the building
up of Christ in his people that is
the test not that it's interesting informative or
anything else but that here Christ is being
ministered I'm being brought right into touch with
Christ Christ is being brought into touch with
me not a lot of words no I'm
having to face up to the Lord Jesus
in some way today our issue of this
word is Christ the living Christ that is
ministry that is ministry you see it's like
that you can take all that I'm saying
back to Paul take it all back and
take it back into this second letter to
the Corinthians alone that's it and then for
the present because of the time this final
question what is evangelism what is evangelism evangelization
is the business of the church what is
evangelism try not to misunderstand me when I
say that the end that God has in
view is not just to get people saved,
he wants them saved he sent his son
that they should be saved we cannot be
too much concerned for their salvation but that
is not the end upon which the eye
of God is resting, evangelism the salvation of
men's souls with God is a related matter
it is to people the kingdom of heaven
with Christ Christ's people more and more in
whom he may have his dwelling to be
an outshining of himself listen when it pleased
God to reveal his son in me that
I might proclaim him among the nations evangelism
is not to get so many people converted
evangelism is through their being saved to increase
the measure of Christ in this universe that's
a sufficient and a much greater motive I
think to be able to count heads and
say we've had so many conversions, oh no
let us say rather, Christ is getting more
and more ground in this way different mentality
and I am not quite certain that the
Lord is not very much reserved and straightened
because of this wrong idea let me put
it the other way I believe that if
really the whole concern in evangelism was not
to be able to count heads and say
so many converts and so many have signed
the cards and so on and so on
but to say by Christ is gaining ground
I believe that if that were more the
object and the motive God would come into
it more because I do believe dear friends,
and forgive me for putting it as my
belief, that doesn't matter at all what I
believe but test it by the word of
God that where Christ is the one, the
only the full object in view God's interest
is the greater God commits himself, so it
must be in all this, the individual fragment
of Christ oh to be here as Christ
here then the Father will be with you
for the local companies to be here in
this neighborhood as Christ, God will commit himself,
so in everything else everything else that we
have mentioned, Christ only Christ Christ the beginning
Christ the end Christ all in all