Serving the Church of the Living God as the Organic Body of Christ (5)


	Serving the Church of the Living God as the Organic Body of Christ (5) To Be the Organic Body of Christ, the Church Must Exist Physically, Have Life, and Possess Christ's Person and Personality In this message we will continue our sharing on the Church as an organic Body constituted with the living Person of Christ. In the past four messages I primarily focused upon three things: that the church as the organic Body must have its physical expression (the local churches); that the church as the organic Body must have life through the operation of the Spirit; and that the church as the organic Body must have the person and personality of Christ, a matter also through the operation of the Spirit. Life-Vitality Comes Out of the Spirit's Operation That the Church is expressed in the physical realm by the local churches is somewhat clear to us. We need, however, to further our understanding about how the vitality of the church life comes about from the operation of the Spirit. Where does life come from? It is clear from the Word that life comes from the Spirit. The Lord said, "It is the Spirit that gives life…" (John 6:63). Therefore if you desire vitality, you must have the Spirit, for the Spirit gives life, and life produces vitality. In the church life, therefore, in order to practice or exercise something vital, such as vital groups, the Spirit must be involved. If you do not have the Spirit you do not have life, and therefore there can be no vitality in your church life. You will be just as dead and depressed as any other Christian group, regardless how high are your teachings. Teachings Cannot Replace Life When the Brethren were raised up towards the beginning of the 19th century, a rich ministry was produced out of many brothers such as John Nelson Darby. The Brethren could eventually boast that among them every word in the Bible had been explained and made clear. Now it's one hundred and fifty years later and I heard some of our young people making the same statement. This means that if you are not careful, you will become just as old as the Brethren, possessing high teachings and yet no reality of life. You have to always realize that in the church life, we are in the organic Body. First, that means we are in the local churches as the physical expression of this Body. Then, as those physically in the church life, we must be in and with life. With every individual, there must the experience of the spirit and life. If at any moment, any time, the spirit is not with you, then life is not with you, and the church is finished with you. It will not matter how good or profound is your teaching. When there is no spirit, there is no life, which means we are through as far as the Body is concerned. It Is Easy To Fall Into Movements Because Movements Fit Our Fallen Nature We have to be careful about this because for some reason it is very easy for us to become interested in things other than the Spirit and life. Many times in our history things that have been generated by the Spirit have become movements among us. Why? Because being in a movement is something we can carry out with our human ability, which for us is the path of least resistance. Very few saints are able to be in spirit and life all the time. In fact, it is very normal for most saints not to be in spirit. This is why we can easily find ourselves in trouble. Movements fit our fallen nature, and it is much easier to be in our fallen nature than it is to be in spirit and life. When we are in our fallen nature, we are for our self-life, so we compete and seek to exalt ourselves while knocking others down. In this realm we need to see faults in others so we can magnify ourselves. And we can only tolerate companions who enjoy the same things we do. These are the factors that produce a movement. Brother Lee, for the thirty-five years he was in this country, since 1962 until his departure in 1997, never once ministered to produce a movement. Actually, Brother Lee never once taught uniformity; he was against uniformity. Yet, for some reason, many of the riches he ministered among us became something of a movement to be carried out in uniformity; his riches even became used by some to purge others out of the recovery. Why do some seek to purge others in the recovery? Because purging exalts the self. For instance, if I can accuse someone of not being in the flow, I make myself powerful, since I know what the "flow" is. A person truly in life's flow, however, would never condemn others. It is easy, though, for us not to be in spirit and life, and so it is easy to be caught up in movements. Supplying Life to the Body Requires Our Exercise Movements catch many because many are not able to live by the Spirit, and therefore they are not in life. To live according to the natural life, however, comes easy. To exercise to be in the Spirit and life so that the organic Body might be realized requires a real labor. It is much easier to live in my self and to point my fingers at others. To place one's self under the discipline of the Spirit requires a price that not many, even among us, are willing to pay. The crucial thing is that I am a person in spirit and in life. How easy it is for me to shout something in a meeting, but how hard it is for me to get up for morning watch. How easy it is for me to be carried along in a movement, but how hard it is for me to continue calling on the name of the Lord during the day. Yet it is such life practices that produce the life the church as the Body requires. Whenever we touch the Spirit, we receive this organic life, and we thus produce the church. When you pray, call on the Lord, pray-read the Word…that is when the substance, the reality, of the church life becomes yours. We Should Become Patterns in Life, Not Law Thus, in the church life there should be life-practices, not laws. Among us, there should be individuals and even churches that are patterns in life. Paul was such a pattern, and he charged Timothy to be such a pattern as well. We must be those practicing the church life by means of this organic life. The more you are in life, the stronger will be your church life. Whether Passive or "Hot," Without Life We Cannot Build the Church When you take away the life element from the church, when you take away the Spirit who gives life, then your church life will either collapse and become common and dead, or it will be hot and be excited with a movement. In the sight of God both are the same. If you become dead and common, however, at least you only hurt yourself and not others. Those who are excited and involved in a movement often end up attacking others. However, this does not mean that I would rather that we be common! I'd rather that we'd all be in spirit and in life, because in spirit and in life you have the reality of the organic Body. The Third Aspect of the Organic Body of Christ: Christ is its Person and Personality Our Service In the Church Must In The Person of Christ Besides having its physical expression (the local churches) and life (the Spirit), the organic Body must also have Christ as its person. The church must have all three aspects. The Spirit should not only be life to us; we also have to allow the Spirit to become the church's personality. The Last Adam became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). In this Last Adam, the very Christ, there is a personality. Whenever you touch the Spirit, you feel rejuvenated, for you are receiving life and life imparting, and even the energizing of life. At the same time, whenever you touch the Spirit, are you realizing that a Person is operating in you? That personality must become the personality of our church life, and that person must become the content of our church life. If so, then we can say that the church life we are serving is in reality the Body of Christ. Do We Exhibit Christ, or Do We Exhibit Religious Behavior? If I walk into the place you are gathering and feel that you brothers are so warm and kind, this can be the person of Christ, or it can be that you are religious. To God, religious practice means nothing; it is the person of Christ that means everything. The person of Christ is treasured by God. In the church life, however, it is too easy for us to bypass Christ. In our service in the church, we must admit that we take care of many things without the person of Christ. Can we say that for us to live is Christ (Phil. 1:20; Gal. 2:20)? To live Christ means that Christ as a living person lives Himself out through me. This living person living in you then becomes the person of the Body, the church. Having Christ as the Person in Our Church Life Requires Growth, Not Adjustment Whenever you come into any congregation, or even in the midst of many churches, you may be see good halls and zealous saints, yet you may sense very little Christ. Then you should realize that something is short. It doesn't mean that they are doing things incorrectly; it just means they are still spiritual babies. (What marks a baby is that it has no person, no personality. But when they enter the "Terrible Two's," they become active and cannot stop. Then you know the personality is emerging and asserting itself.) For the Churches To Fully Express Christ as His Organic Body, All the Members Must Learn to Take Christ as Their Person Once a local church comes into existence as the physical expression of the organic Body of Christ, there must be the Spirit as the organic life to be the substance of the church life, and there must also be the person, the personality of Jesus Christ, experienced by all His members. You and I, day by day, must live in and enjoy the Lord's presence, eventually enjoying the Lord's person, living as Christ, and having Christ live out through us. Then, when you come to the church life there will be something that makes you feel not only warm, sweet, lovely, and tender, but also something high, so profound, so deep, and even so mystical. You will realize that Christ is here with us. Brothers, we do need this kind of understanding. We must see that the Church is the organic Body constituted with the living person, Christ, operating vitally in His divine life with all its members. Now I'd like to say a word of warning. Try not to merely use the word 'Body'. Rather, use the word 'Organic Body'. If nothing is organic, there is no reality of the Body. It is possible to use the word 'Body' in an exclusive rather than inclusive manner. We are one Body. But because we do not stress enough on the Body being organic, sometimes we hear some say, "Why are you not for the Body?" in a way that misses the truth of the organic Body. May the Lord have mercy on all of us that we may exercise among the churches with such a view of the organic Body.