John (Program #44) – Life’s Prayer (3)

We are one divine human incorporation in the Triune God. Surely, our Oneness is not just a “getting together” or a kind of “joining something”. It is the Oneness of the Triune God.

In John 17, you have a list: 4 verses, mentioning something of the Oneness. Verse 11 says, the Oneness is in the name of the Father. The reality of the Father’s name is the Father’s divine life. So, the first factor of the genuine Oneness is the name of the Father with the Father’s divine life. Then verse 21, this is deep verse, so profound! “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that You have sent Me.” The point here is this. The Oneness is in the Triune God. When we are all in the Triune God, then in the Triune God, we have the Oneness. But, here we have to pay attention to this fact. How could we be in the Triune God? Through His death and resurrection…

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John (Program #40) – The Work of the Spirit unto the Mingling of Divinity with Humanity (1)

Acts 13:33 tell us that on the day of resurrection, He was begotten by God. His humanity was actually born into divinity to make Him the first born Son of God.

These 3 chapters (John 14, 15, 16) are very rich and very meaningful because these 3 chapters are the contents of the Lord’s final message given in His earthly ministry before He went to the cross, was crucified, and then resurrected. In these 3 chapters, what we see s God’s heart’s desire and God’s eternal purpose.

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John (Program #37) – The Organism of the Triune God in the Divine Dispensation (1)

God intends to propagate and multiply, not by relying on great gospel campaigns, but rather by flowing His life in Christ into all the branches so that all the branches will bear fruit.

Chapter 14 of John has as its focus, the dispensing of the Triune God into the believers of Christ for the producing of God’s abode. In order to touch the heart of chapter 14, we need to drop the traditional concept that the Father’s house with the many abodes denotes Heaven. Simply put the Father’s house denotes the Father’s house, which is His habitation, His dwelling place, elsewhere called quite distinctly the Church of the living God or the temple of God. So, the emphasis in chapter 14 is how Christ in resurrection as the Spirit of reality comes into the believers, dwells in them, and enables them to dwell in God. And the result of this mutual indwelling is the producing of God’s dwelling place.

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John (Program #35) – The Dispensing of the Triune God for the Producing of His Abode (3)

People think that the Lord Jesus has gone to prepare a big mansion for us in heaven. As though God had two dwelling places, or two buildings, God only has one building. Not one on heaven and one on earth. He has one building.

This chapter (John 14) is very mysterious I admit, and it’s very misunderstood. But, this chapter is really the last message that the Lord gave to His disciples. And, here He’s talking about going away. Many people misunderstand this. But, He’s just talking here about His going to the cross. And, when He goes to the cross, He is also promising that He will come again. His coming again of course is after His resurrection. He will come back to them. And when He comes back to them, He will be the Spirit because in His resurrection He becomes the life giving Spirit.

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John (Program #33) – The Dispensing of the Triune God for the Producing of His Abode (1)

The Lord went through death and resurrection in order to be the way and also to open the way for us in Him to go, not to heaven, but to go into God.

The first section concerns Christ coming to incarnation. The second section is about Jesus going through death and then coming in resurrection as the life giving Spirit. In the first section, Christ as the eternal Word came through incarnation to bring God into man in order to be life to us and our life supply. Then, we see that He came, so that He Himself as life may meet every human need for the building up of God’s dwelling place.

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John (Program #29) – Life’s Issue and Multiplication (1)

In the divine life there is a longing for the kind of church life portrait in chapter 12 of John.  But unfortunately, religious concept inclines us very much in another direction.  It’s striking that the Lord Jesus went to a little house to have His church life.

It surely is a pleasant message on a very pleasant matter; the miniature of the church life portrait in the first part of John 12.  For you have Martha and Lazarus and Mary together with the Lord Jesus enjoying kind of feast together.  Two or three things are very striking about this.  One is the fact that it follows the record of the raising of Lazarus and since everything in this gospel virtually is a sign, the scene in chapter 12 is also a sign of the genuine and proper church life as an issue of resurrection.

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John (Program #28) – The Need of the Dead – Life’s Resurrecting

Lazarus comes forth, but he still has his grave clothes on. So, what the Lord told the ones around him is, “loose him and let him go”. We still need the brothers and sisters. When we meet with them, we are loose and we are free to follow Christ with those who cooperate with the Lord in resurrection.

This is the conclusion of a long section from John 3 through John 11 that shows us how Christ as the divine, eternal, uncreated life of God meets the need of every man’s case.

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John (Program #13) – Life’s Purpose

Let the enemy do whatever he can, but whatever he does would just afford a chance for the Lord to do something more in resurrection.

In the changing of water into wine, we have seen the principle of life, that is to change death into life. Now, in the dealing of the temple, we can see the goal, the purpose of life. That is to build the house of God. This section of the Word is so short, but it has two aspects, which both are quite meaningful.

The first aspect is the cleansing aspect, and the second is the building aspect. With the temple of God, there is a need of these two aspects, the cleansing and the building. God’s enemy, Satan, always tries two things to damage or to frustrate the temple of God. Number one, to contaminate it, dirty with so many sinful things. So, this is why the house of God needs the cleansing. Number two, God’s enemy, Satan, always will try to damage, to tear down the temple of God. Today, with the Church life, it is the same. Satan always tries to get the Church life contaminated, dirtied with so many worldly things, sinful things. And then, Satan will always try to damage, if possible to tear down the Church life.

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John (Program #12) – Life’s Principle

One day your human life will run out, and the enjoyment will be over.

Chapter one gives us an introduction to the whole book. And, we have seen the introduction starts from eternity past and ends with eternity future. And in between, as we have seen, there is the bridge of time on which 5 main events transpire to accomplish God’s eternal purpose. We have seen this clearly. Now by the way, I must point out to you that John tells us that the Lord Jesus did lots of things. Thousands of things. But out of the thousand cases, John, the writer, only selected not more than 12 events. From chapter three through chapter eleven, it is so clear that there are 9 cases. From Nicodemus to the resurrection of Lazarus. Altogether 9 cases, plus 1 in chapter two. The changing of water into wine…

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Luke (Program #65) – The Man-Savior’s Ascension (3 & 4)

The Gospel of Luke concludes with one of the mysterious and difficult to understand items in the entire New Testament and that’s the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ to the heavenlies, some forty days after His resurrection. Luke 20:4 says “while He blessed them He parted from them and was carried up into heaven and they worship Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God.”  One of the reasons that seems to be mysterious and difficult is that it appears to be very removed even remote from us. Yet when we see His ascension properly in view of the entire New Testament revelation we realized that it has tremendous implications for us.

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