26 February 1957, at Kaohsiung,
Taiwan.
There are a lot of personal
things that I would like to say to you, they would be about
how glad I am to be back again with you in Kaoshung. I
remember my last time with you the year before last with
great joy and I believe that this is going to be a time that
we will also remember with thankfulness to the Lord. But I am
not going to take our valuable time speaking personal words.
We are here with serious business, we want to talk about the
Lord and I believe that you are prepared to do some very real
work. And I would like to prepare you for hard work; that is,
I am going to expect that you will work together with me in
the Word of God.
I am quite sure that you
have not come here just to hear pleasing little things, but
you want to get to know the Lord better and that is the object
of our being here. So I am going to ask you to really give
yourselves to this business, and during our time tonight, to
really work with me in the Word of God.
I am going to ask you to
begin by looking at a few passages of Scripture. We will begin
with the prophecy of Isaiah in a very well known chapter:
Isaiah 53:10,11. Now will you just try to remember these
verses, "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath put
him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for
sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see
of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied."
Now I want
you to notice two statements in those verses, which are very
alike: "He shall see His seed" and "He shall see of the
travail of His soul".
Now will you keep that in
your mind and turn over to the New Testament to another well
known chapter in the gospel by John, chapter 3 at verse 3:
"Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, Except a man be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of
God". Now let us put our passages together before we go on.
"He shall see His seed... and He shall see of the travail of His
soul and be satisfied." "Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
Except a man be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Now shall we read verse six
of John 3: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that
which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said
unto thee, Ye must be born anew". Now I want you to go over to
the gospel by Mark, chapter 3, at verses 13 and 14: "And he
goeth up into a mountain and calleth unto him whom he would:
and they came unto him. And he appointed twelve, that they
should be with him, and that he might send them forth to
preach."
Will you keep those
passages in mind and then go over to the Gospel by Luke at
chapter 10 and verse 1: "After these things the Lord appointed
other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face
into every city and place, whither he himself would come." Now
I hope you will be able to remember all these passages because
I am going to add one more and that is in the letter to the
Hebrews, chapter 12 at verse 22: "But ye are come unto Mount
Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem."
I wonder if you recognise
what all those passages of Scripture represent. What we are
going to think about tonight is what Jesus began to do and
what He is continuing
to do.
What Jesus is Doing
You remember that when Luke wrote the Book of Acts, he
began by saying, "The former treatise of all that Jesus began
to do and to teach until the day when He was received up."
Now, as Luke is beginning to write another book, he really
means to say, "I am going to write about what Jesus is
continuing to do and to teach since He was received up" and
seeing that Jesus is still doing and teaching, this matter
comes right down here tonight.
Luke's second volume was
never finished. The story that he started to write was never
completed. For some reason, Luke broke off his story. He just
left it with the Apostle Paul in prison and told us no more. I
do not know what might have been Luke's reason for not going
on, but if the Holy Spirit was leading Luke to write, I know
why Luke did not go on. It was because the story will go on
long beyond Luke's life. The story would go on for many
hundreds of years after that. That story could not be finished
until the Lord comes back again. So the story is going on
today. We still live in the day when Jesus is continuing to do
that which He began when He was here.
That leads us to ask what
was it that Jesus began to do and to teach? If we can answer
that question, we will know why He is still continuing
teaching and doing. Now, all these passages which I have just
asked you to read, tell us what Jesus had begun to do. We take
the first two: Isaiah 53:10-11 and John 3:5. In Isaiah 53 we
have these words about the Lord Jesus: "He shall see His seed...
and He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be
satisfied." Now, the Jewish nation was always called the seed
of Abraham. Anybody who knows anything about the Bible or
about the Jews knows that this is true. The Jews always speak
of themselves as the seed of Abraham. That means that from
Abraham came a certain nation that is the Jewish nation.
The Jewish nation is quite
a clearly defined nation. There is no mistaking them. If you
meet Jews, you know quite well that they are quite a distinct
people. No matter where they are all over the world, they
still retain their distinctiveness as a people. My point is
that the seed of Abraham is a clearly defined nation. It is a
nation on this earth, which everybody can recognize. Now
listen to these words. These words are spoken about the Lord
Jesus: He shall see His seed and He shall see of the travail
of His soul and be satisfied. What did Jesus begin to do? He
began to bring into being a new
nation, another distinctive people, a people who can be
recognized just as clearly as ever the Jews could be
recognized. That is what He began to do. And all His teaching
was about this new people that were coming into this world and
that is what Jesus is going on doing and teaching now. He
Himself is producing a new nation, a new kind of people.
A New Nation
Now you see what He meant
when He said these words to Nicodemus. Nicodemus was
interested in the matter of getting into the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus was a son of Abraham, he was of the seed of Abraham;
a representative man of the seed of Abraham. There is no
mistaking Nicodemus. If you had seen Nicodemus, you would have
said, "Behold an Israelite indeed". You would say that there
is no mistaking that that man is of the seed of Abraham. That
man comes to the Lord Jesus, he is interested in this matter
of getting into the kingdom of God. Jesus said this to him,
"You may be of the seed of Abraham, you indeed be a
representative man of Israel, but you do not belong to the
nation that I am forming. You are not the fruit of My travail
and so you must be born anew; that which is born of the flesh
is flesh" by which the Lord Jesus meant "That which is born of
Abraham belongs to one race, but that which is born of the
Spirit is Spirit and that is altogether a different race".
The Lord Jesus tells us the
nature of this nation that He is bringing, this seed that He
has come to produce. He said, "That which is born of the
Spirit is Spirit". This is a spiritual nation, this is a
spiritual people. These people are the result of the work of
the Holy Spirit. This is a very different thing from the seed
of Abraham. What did Jesus begin to do? He began to produce a
new Israel, but this time a spiritual and a heavenly Israel.
That is what He is continuing to do.
Now, I do want you to
recognize this. What are we Christians? What does it mean to
be a Christian? Let me put that in another way; what is it
that Jesus is doing with us? When we are born anew, when the
Holy Spirit does His work in our hearts, what is it that is
really happening? The answer is that Jesus is building the
spiritual Israel. This Israel, that takes the place of the old
earthly Israel, He is making into another nation, and just as
the seed of Abraham can be recognized amongst the people of
this world, so the seed of Christ are different from everybody
else. That is the first fact about the Christian life: we are
a new nation and we are different from every other nation of
the earth.
In the case of the seed of
Abraham, the difference was outward. You recognize the Jews by
outward features. But this new nation is not recognized by
outward features. Here we are in a different place tonight
with several nationalities from this world and the majority of
you are naturally Chinese, but there are some here from
Denmark, and some here from Britain, and there may be some
other nationalities here, but we are all one nation if we are
in Christ. And that recognition is not just something outward,
it is something inside. We all have something in common that
is in an inward way. If we are in Christ, we are all born of
one Father, we are all the seed of Jesus, we are all the fruit
of His travail. This is a great inward thing and this makes us
different from all others.
Well, I am not going to
stay in that any longer, I must go on to the next passage that
I read to you from the third chapter of Mark.
A New Government
"Jesus called
unto Him whom He would and they came unto Him and He chose
twelve." If you recognize it, that is a most impressive fact.
If we don't recognize the significance of this, the Jews
would, especially the Jewish rulers: "What is this Man doing?
He has chosen twelve apostles, He has stolen the number of
Israel, He has stolen away our national number and He has
given it to those men. The national number of Israel is twelve
– the twelve patriots, the twelve sons of Jacob, and the
twelve tribes of Israel. Number twelve is the number of the
seed of Abraham and this Man has stolen our number twelve and
given it to His disciples. What is this Man doing?" And then
you have to remember what twelve represents and this is the
point that upset them most. Twelve was always the number of
government. You see, the twelve tribes of Israel were intended
to be in the place of government. The Lord had said to them
through Moses, "Ye shall be the head and not the tail." Israel
was intended to be the head of the nation, to govern the
nations. Number twelve is the number of government. Now Jesus
had stolen that and given it to His disciples. What was He
doing? He was setting up a new government. You see what He is
doing, He is setting up a new people to govern the nation.
You carry over that number
twelve to the New Testament and you begin with the twelve
apostles, and when you get to the end of the Bible you find
twelve everywhere. But what is twelve connected with at the
end? It is connected with the new Jerusalem. It has twelve
foundations to its wall. In those walls of foundation are the
names of the twelve apostles of the land, and it has twelve
gates and there are twelve angels; the measurement of the city
is 12,000 furlongs. You see twelve is everywhere. What does
this mean? Well that city that is presented there is a symbol
or a type. It is the picture of the Church and the Church is
God's chosen instrument for government for all the ages to
come. You see in the Church that the number twelve is
everywhere. That is only God's way of saying that the Church
is called by God for government in this universe. That is what
Jesus began to do. He new what He was doing, He knew He was
doing a tremendous thing, He knew that what He was doing would
bring all the dispensation of the Jewish against Him. He chose
twelve and what a terrible thing to do, for that was just the
thing that would upset all Israel! He was starting all over
again. The government had been taken from the seed of Abraham
and given to the Church.
You and I, dear friends, if
we are of the seed of Christ, we are called to that very great
honour. We are called to fellowship with Christ in the ages to
come in the government of this world. The Lord Jesus, by His
teaching, is trying to teach us or train us how to govern. Now,
we all understand that this is spiritual. We know quite well
that the Church isn't governing this world in a temporal way
now, but He is training us for government. All the experiences
that He is allowing to come to us are to train us to overcome,
to have dominion. He gave them authority over unclean spirits
and over all manners of diseases. You see, He had called them
to this great government. Now that is a spiritual thing. The
Church is called to deal with the forces of evil and to govern
them. The Church is called to deal with spiritual diseases and
to bring spiritual diseases under its control. I could only
say this little bit, I hope there is a little hole through
which you can see a very big world... if you will put your eye
to that little hole, you see on the other side the whole great
purpose of the Lord.
You are called to govern in
the ages to come. Christ is going to govern this universe and
we are to govern with Him. That is what He began to do when He
chose twelve. I said that He did a tremendous thing when
He chose twelve. The Jewish rulers recognized what He was
doing and they said, "We will not have this Man to rule over
us." You see, they had seen the significance of this. They
said, "This Man is going to set up a new government and we
will have nothing of Him, we will get rid of Him and all His
ideas of government." They crucified the Lord Jesus because He
was setting up another Israel and He was setting up another
government, but it wasn't a temporary government of this
world. He said, "My kingdom is not of this world," and He
said, "My disciples are not of this world." This is a
spiritual and a heavenly seed, this is born from above, this
government is spiritual.
Well, I am quite sure you
recognise that, we could spend many hours on that. Now we go
to another passage that is in Luke 10.
A New Representation
He appointed seventy.
Jesus appointed seventy. What is the meaning of this? This is
another very deliberate act of His. He knew what He was doing
and again the Jewish rulers knew what He was doing. You go
right back there in the Bible to the books of Moses and you
will find that there were seventy elders in Israel. These were
heads of father's houses. These men were gathered around Moses
and they were the helpers of Moses. You see, they represented
the whole of Israel. There, around Moses, were seventy elders.
They represented the whole nation. Their number was seventy
and Jesus appointed seventy.
What was He doing? He was
taking the place of Moses and He was gathering seventy men
around Him to represent this new nation that He was setting
up. That was a terrible thing to do. Right in the eyes of the
Jewish rulers He appointed seventy and He sent them forth. He
sent them to every city and place where He Himself would go.
In all the cities and villages where they went, they
represented the Lord Jesus. They were like the elders of
Israel who represented Moses and represented this nation.
Jesus was just following the pattern of Israel but He was
doing it in a spiritual way. You see that what He began to do,
He is going on with that now.
Seventy is just a symbolic
number. It is the number of spiritual representation. The
twelve is the number of spiritual government, and seventy is
the number of spiritual representation and Jesus is still
moving on that principle. What is He doing? He is calling men
into association with Himself in order to represent Him in
places.
Let us go back to Moses.
You see these seventy elders who were the head of the houses of
Moses, these seventy men came into the presence of Moses. They
got the mind of Moses and then they went back to their house
and they told the people there what Moses wanted done. The
people there came to know the mind of Moses through them. Now
you see what Jesus was doing. He was bringing men into
association with Himself in order that He might send them out
to represent Him everywhere. So that if anybody wants to know
what Jesus desires, they will go to His representative and
that, dear friends, comes right to us here tonight.
The Lord Jesus has called
us into fellowship with Him. Why has He done that? That He
might put us all over this world to represent Him; that men
and women might know the mind of the Lord Jesus through us.
You see, He is building a new nation for a new government and
put a new representation of Himself in the nation. Now that is
something for you to think about.
A New City and Temple
We have come to our last
passage, Hebrews 12, and what does it say? "Ye are come unto
Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem." What is this? That is still following the old
pattern; Mount Zion was the city of the great king. In the Old
Testament Mount Zion was the city of David, the city of the
great king. Jerusalem was the centre of government for the
whole land. Now it says here, "You have come to Mount Zion"
but it's not the Mount Zion of the Old Testament for you are
come to the heavenly Jerusalem, you
are come to Jesus who is the great King. Mount Zion is the
city of the great King. You are come to the heavenly
Jerusalem, the centre of government of a new heavenly country.
This is what it means to be a Christian.
I am going to finish there
tonight. It is all very impressive to know what Jesus began to
do and to teach, and He is continuing to do and to teach that.
I could go on with quite a lot of other things, I could bring
you to the temple and I can show you that Jesus is building
another temple, another house of God, but I am not going to
give you too much tonight. He is following the old pattern,
but the old things have passed away, all has become new. It is
a new spiritual temple.
We are the seed of Christ,
we are the fruit of His travail. It is in true believers that
He sees the travail of His soul and He is satisfied. Believers
are the new Israel; believers are called and chosen for the
new government; believers are called for the new
representation of Christ in the nations; believers are called
to be a holy temple in the Lord; believers are God's new
house. You see, when Israel after the flesh refused the Lord
Jesus, they lost everything and He has given it all to the
Church. He said to the Jewish rulers, "The kingdom of heaven
shall be taken away from you and be given to a nation bringing
forth the fruit thereof" and it is His believers who are that
nation. The kingdom of heaven has been given to us.
Now may we all walk worthy
of the Lord, may the distinctiveness of that Character be
seen in us, that everybody can see the difference between us
and all other people; that we are a special people, the
character of heaven is in us and the likeness of Jesus is seen
in us and we are learning everything that spiritual government
means.
You may not have understood
all that I have said, but do not just go away and say "I
do not
understand it" and think there is nothing in it, I want to tell
you that there is everything in it and you just ask the Lord to
give you understanding, to see what a wonderful thing it is to
be of the seed of Christ, to be the fruit of His travail and a
special heavenly people who are called to reign with Him forever
and ever and to be unto God a temple, a dwelling place. That is
something of what it means to be a Christian and that is not a
small thing. The Lord help us to understand it.