THE SECOND PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Acts of Apostles
Message Three—The Teaching and the Fellowship of the Apostles
Scripture Reading: Acts 2:42; 1 Tim. 1:3-4; Titus 1:9; 2:1, 7-8; 1 John 1:3
I. The teaching of the apostles is the unique and healthy teaching of God’s eternal economy—Acts 2:42; 1 Tim. 1:3-4:
A. The teaching of the apostles is the entire teaching of the New Testament as God’s speaking in the Son to His New Testament people—Heb. 1:1-2:
1. God firstly spoke in the Son as a man in the four Gospels—John 14:10; 5:24; 16:12; 10:30.
2. God secondly spoke in the Son as the Spirit through the apostles in Acts and the twenty-one Epistles (Romans through Jude)—John 16:12-15; Matt. 28:19-20; Heb. 2:3-4; 2 Pet. 3:15-16; Col. 1:25-27.
3. God thirdly spoke in the Son as the seven Spirits through the apostle John in Revelation—1:1-2, 4; 2:1.
B. The teaching of the apostles is the unique, divine revelation of God’s New Testament economy from the incarnation of God to the consummation of the New Jerusalem—the teaching of the full ministry of Christ in His three divine and mystical stages:
1. The stage of incarnation is for Christ to bring God into man, to unite and mingle God with man, to express God in humanity, and to accomplish His judicial redemption—John 1:14, 29; 5:19; Matt. 1:18, 20.
2. The stage of inclusion is for Christ to be begotten as God’s firstborn Son, to become the life-giving Spirit, and to regenerate the believers for His Body—Acts 13:33; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 1 Pet. 1:3.
3. The stage of intensification is for Christ to intensify His organic salvation, to produce the overcomers, and to consummate the New Jerusalem—Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6; 2:7, 17; 3:20; 21:2, 9-10.
C. The teaching of the apostles is the holding factor of the one accord, causing us to have one heart, one way, and one goal—Acts 1:14; 2:42a, 46a; Jer. 32:39.
D. Different teachings, other than the teaching of the apostles, are the major source of the church’s decline, degradation, and deterioration—1 Tim. 1:3-7; 6:3-5, 20-21a:
1. The striking point of the churches’ degradation is different teachings; these teachings crept in because the churches turned away from Paul’s teaching, the unique teaching of God’s eternal economy—Rev. 2:14-15, 20; 2 Tim. 1:15.
2. Different teachings separate us from the genuine appreciation, love, and enjoyment of the precious person of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself as our life and our everything—2 Cor. 11:2-3.
3. The Lord appreciated the church in Philadelphia because they kept the word, which means that they did not turn away from the healthy teaching of God’s economy, the teaching of the apostles—Rev. 3:8; 1 Tim. 6:3.
E. We must be those who are “holding to the faithful word, which is according to the teaching of the apostles”—Titus 1:9:
1. The churches were established according to the apostles’ teaching and followed their teaching, and the order of the churches was maintained by the faithful word, which was given according to the apostles’ teaching.
2. We must speak the things that are fitting to the healthy teaching of the apostles, the teaching of God’s economy— 2:1, 7-8; 1 Tim. 6:3.
II. The fellowship of the apostles is the unique and universal fellowship of the Body of Christ—the reality of living in the Body of Christ—Acts 2:42:
A. Teaching creates fellowship, and fellowship comes from teaching; if we teach wrongly or differently from the apostles’ teaching, our teaching will produce a sectarian, divisive fellowship—1 Cor. 4:17; 1:9; 10:16; 1 Tim. 1:3-4.
B. The fellowship is the flow of the eternal life within all the believers, who have received and possess the divine life—1 John 1:3; 2 Cor. 13:14; cf. Rev. 22:1.
C. The initial experience of the apostles was the vertical fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ, but when the apostles reported the eternal life to others, they experienced the horizontal aspect of the divine fellowship—1 John 1:2-3:
1. Our horizontal fellowship with the saints brings us into vertical fellowship with the Lord; then our vertical fellowship with the Lord brings us into horizontal fellowship with the saints—vv. 7, 9.
2. In this divine fellowship God is interwoven with us; this interweaving is the mingling of God and man—cf. Lev. 2:4-5; 1 Cor. 10:17.
D. The coordination of the four living creatures presents a beautiful picture of the practical fellowship of the Body of Christ; fellowship means doing everything through the cross and by the Spirit to dispense Christ into others for the sake of His Body—Ezek. 1:5a, 9, 11b-14, 19-22, 25-26; 1 Cor. 12:14-30:
1. The eagle’s wings are the means by which the four living creatures are coordinated and move as one, signifying that their coordination is in the divine power, the divine strength, and the divine supply (not in themselves)—Ezek. 1:9, 11; Exo. 19:4; Isa. 40:31; 2 Cor. 12:9; 1 Cor. 15:10.
2. In the church service we all need to learn not only how to walk “straight forward” but also how to walk “backward” and “sideways”; in coordination there is no freedom or convenience; coordination keeps us from making turns—cf. Eph. 3:18.
3. Fellowship blends us, mingles us, adjusts us, tempers us, harmonizes us, limits us, protects us, supplies us, and blesses us, giving us the power and the impact of the Spirit; the Body is in the fellowship—1 Cor. 12:24-25; Ezek. 1:13-14.
4. We should apply this matter of coordination not only in a particular local church but also among the churches; this means that we are followers of the churches and that the local churches should fellowship with all the genuine local churches on the whole earth to keep the universal fellowship of the Body of Christ—1 Thes. 2:14; 1 Cor. 10:16.
Ministry Excerpts:
In the New Testament the term the teaching of the apostles was used first in Acts 2:42. Consisting of:
THE TEACHINGS OF THE LORD JESUS IN THE FOUR GOSPELS
The apostles’ teaching consists of, first, the teachings of the Lord Jesus in the four Gospels. In Matthew 28:19-20 the Lord charged the earlier disciples to teach the new believers all the things that He had commanded them in the four Gospels. Thus, it is clear that the teaching of the apostles includes the teachings of the Lord Jesus in the four Gospels.
THE TEACHINGS OF THE APOSTLES IN THE ACTS
The teaching of the apostles also includes the teachings of the apostles in the book of Acts (Heb. 2:3). Hebrews 1:1-2a says, “God…has at the last of these days spoken to us in the Son.” Here it says that in the last days God speaks in the Son, that is, in the person of the Son. From this we can realize that even the speaking of the apostles in the Acts is God’s speaking in the Son.
Surely the Lord’s speaking in the four Gospels was God’s speaking. However, we may think that it is wrong to say that the apostles’ speaking in the Acts also is God’s speaking. According to Hebrews 1:2, today God speaks in the Son. In the Greek text there is no article before the word Son. Hence, the verse says, literally, that God speaks “in Son.” In his New Translation, J. N. Darby rendered this portion “in [the person of the] Son.”
The entire New Testament economy of God is operated not in the person of the Father, but in the person of the Son through the person of the Spirit. Because all the apostles are the sons of God in the firstborn Son of God, their speaking for God is also God’s speaking in the person of the Son. The firstborn Son of God and the many sons of God are considered as one in the person of the Son. Hence, all the speakings by the apostles are God’s speaking.
THE TEACHINGS OF THE APOSTLES IN THE EPISTLES FROM
ROMANS TO REVELATION
The teaching of the apostles also includes the teachings of the apostles in the Epistles, from Romans through Revelation (John 16:12-15; Col. 1:25-28; Rev. 22:18-19). Revelation should be considered not merely as a book but actually as a long epistle, within which are seven epistles (2:1—3:22). The New Testament has twenty-seven books. The first five are the four Gospels and the Acts. The remainder of the books of the New Testament are the twenty-two Epistles from Romans through Revelation. All these Epistles are the apostles’ writings. They are the divine speaking concerning God’s mysteries in His economy.
In John 16:12, after the Lord had spoken to His disciples up to a certain point, He said to them, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” Here the Lord meant that the disciples could not then enter into what He wanted to tell them, because they had not yet received the Spirit. They needed to wait until the Spirit of reality came. In verses 13-15 the Lord continued, “But when He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality; for He will not speak from Himself, but what He hears He will speak; and He will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify Me, for He will receive of Mine and will declare it to you. All that the Father has is Mine; for this reason I have said that He receives of Mine and will declare it to you.” Here the Lord told His disciples that when the Spirit of reality came, He would unveil to them all the things that the Lord would attain to and obtain. The Lord was going to attain to and obtain many things, but He could not tell the disciples, because they could not enter into these things; that is, they could not bear them. They needed to wait until the Spirit of reality came.
This word in John 16 was spoken by the Lord on the night of His betrayal. Immediately after that, He was arrested, judged, and crucified. After three days He resurrected, and in the evening of the third day He came back to the disciples in the form of the Spirit (20:19-22). At that time He was the pneumatic Christ. It was then that He breathed Himself into His disciples (v. 22).
After forty days the Lord Jesus ascended to the heavens openly and officially (Acts 1:9). Prior to that time Peter had often spoken quickly and foolishly (Matt. 16:21-23; 17:24-27; 26:31-35), but immediately after the Lord’s ascension, Peter’s speaking changed. In Acts 1—2 Peter could expound the Psalms concerning Christ (2:25-31) and concerning Judas (1:15-20), and his interpretation was wonderful. Before Christ’s resurrection Peter was merely Peter, without the Spirit of reality, but after Christ’s ascension, Peter became another person. He became an excellent teacher of the Bible.
Later, Paul was raised up. Peter wrote only two Epistles, and these were written late. Paul, however, wrote fourteen Epistles. The first few—Galatians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, and Romans—were written considerably earlier than Peter’s. In Colossians, one of Paul’s later Epistles, Paul told us clearly that he had received a commission from God to complete the word of God’s revelation concerning God’s mystery in His economy (1:25-26). That mystery, which is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (v. 27), is centered on Christ’s indwelling.
Finally, at the end of Revelation, John the apostle said, “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this scroll; and if anyone takes away from the words of the scroll of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and out of the holy city, which are written in this scroll” (22:18-19). According to John’s word here, after the writing of Revelation no one can add anything to or subtract anything from the divine revelation. Hence, according to Paul’s word in Colossians 1:25 and John’s word in Revelation 22:18-19, we know that after these two writers the entire divine revelation was complete; no one can add anything or take away anything. Thus, it is very logical to conclude that all the Epistles written by the apostles are also God’s speaking in the person of the Son. Hence, we need to consider all the words in the entire New Testament, from the first word of Matthew to the last word of Revelation, as God’s speaking through the different mouths and different hands of the apostles. This is the apostles’ teaching.
All the above teachings are God’s speaking in the Son at the last of these days (Heb. 1:2), which should be universally taught everywhere in every church in the same way (1 Cor. 4:17; 7:17).
THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE APOSTLES
Acts 2:42 mentions not only the teaching of the apostles but also the fellowship of the apostles. Any kind of teaching will bring in a certain kind of fellowship. The kind of fellowship we enter into corresponds to the kind of teaching we are under. Fellowship is always based on teaching.
The Fellowship of the Divine Life, between the Apostles and the Believers
The fellowship of the apostles is, first, the fellowship of the divine life, between the apostles and the believers (1 John 1:1-3a). According to the New Testament the fellowship of Christians is a divine matter. It is a matter of the divine life. Without life we cannot have any fellowship. It is impossible for a dog to fellowship with a bird. Because they have two different kinds of lives, the dog life and the bird life, they are in two different realms, two different kingdoms, the dog kingdom and the bird kingdom. The dog kingdom surely cannot fellowship with the bird kingdom. Likewise, a human being cannot fellowship with a dog, because they have different lives and are in different realms.
A kingdom is always based on life. Since we were born of Adam, we are in the human kingdom, the kingdom of mankind. But after being born of Adam, we were regenerated. Through regeneration we received the divine life and were transferred into the divine kingdom, the kingdom of God. This is why the Lord Jesus told Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” and again, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:3-6). The kingdom of God is of another life, the divine life. Unless we are born anew and thereby receive the divine life, we cannot see the kingdom of God, because we do not have the capacity. This requires the divine life.
The apostles’ teaching brings the divine life to us. When we receive the divine life through the apostles’ teaching, in that life we immediately have fellowship. Regardless of our race or nationality, as long as we are saved, when we come together there is spontaneously a fellowship among us. Our meeting together is very harmonious because we all have been brought into the divine life, and in the divine life we have fellowship.
In 1 John 1:1-3 the apostle John told the believers that he brought in the fellowship through the divine life. Thus, between the apostles and the believers there is something that is called fellowship. Then the apostle said that this fellowship is not only a fellowship between the believers and the apostles but also a fellowship between the apostles and God (v. 3b).
The fellowship of the apostles is also the fellowship of the divine life, between the believers among themselves in their spirit (vv. 2-3, 7; Phil. 2:1). Among the believers there is a wonderful thing called fellowship. This fellowship is carried on by the Spirit in the believers’ regenerated spirit. Hence, in Philippians 2:1 it is called “fellowship of [our] spirit.”
The Fellowship of the Holy Spirit in All the Believers
The fellowship of the apostles is also the fellowship of the Holy Spirit in all the believers. Second Corinthians 13:14 says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” These three—love, grace, and fellowship—are not three separate things; rather, they are three aspects of one thing. The fellowship of the Spirit carries with it the grace of Christ, and within the grace of Christ is the love of God. Thus, these three items are just one divine gift as a portion to us, that is, the Triune God Himself in three aspects: in the Father as love, in the Son as grace, and in the Spirit as the fellowship, the application.
This fellowship is the fellowship of the Body of Christ in the oneness of the Spirit. Ephesians 4:3 tells us to be diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit, and then verse 4 follows immediately to say, “One Body and one Spirit.” These two verses indicate that the oneness of the Spirit is just the fellowship of the Body of Christ. This fellowship of the Body is in the oneness of the Spirit. If we do not have the oneness of the Spirit, we are not enjoying the fellowship of the Body.
EXCLUSIONS FROM THE UNIQUE FELLOWSHIP OF THE BODY OF CHRIST
According to the New Testament there are four kinds of exclusions from the unique fellowship of the Body of Christ.
The Removal of the Believers Living in Gross Sins
The believers who live in gross sins should be excluded from the unique fellowship of the Body of Christ. Some of the believers in Corinth not only committed gross sins occasionally but also lived in gross sins. In 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 the apostle taught us to remove this kind of person from our midst. However, many Christians interpret the word remove as excommunicate. This is a mistake. The sense here is not excommunicate but remove. The removing here is not an excommunication but a form of quarantining, as is used to isolate those who are sick of a contagious disease (cf. 2 Cor. 2:1-8).
In his writing of 1 Corinthians 5:13 Paul quoted the word remove from the Septuagint. In Leviticus and Numbers God charged the Israelites to “remove” a leper from their fellowship that this one might be healed (Lev. 13:45-46). After his healing, such a one was to be brought back into the fellowship (Lev. 14). The dealing here with a leper was a quarantining. This, not excommunication, is what is meant in 1 Corinthians 5:13 by the removal of one who is living in gross sin.
The Rejection of the Heretics Who Go Beyond and
Do Not Abide in the Teaching of Christ,
Especially concerning Christ’s Divine and Human Person
The heretics who go beyond and do not abide in the teaching of Christ, especially concerning Christ’s divine and human person, should be rejected from the fellowship of the Body of Christ (2 John 7, 9-11). In the apostles’ time there were two major heresies. One, the heresy of the Cerinthians, said that Christ was not God (1 John 2:22), and the other, the heresy of the Docetists, said that Jesus Christ did not come in the flesh as a man (4:2-3). The Bible reveals clearly that Christ is a God-man. As a God-man, He has divinity, the divine nature, and He also has humanity, the human nature. According to the writings of John, at his time there were a number of antichrists who opposed the truth concerning Christ’s divine and human person. One group of antichrists did not believe that Christ was a human being, and the other group did not believe that Christ was a divine being. Thus, both Christ’s deity and Christ’s humanity were rejected. The apostle John charged the saints and the churches to reject this kind of person. When this kind of person who has gone beyond the proper teaching of Christ and does not abide in it comes to us, we must reject him. According to 2 John 10, we should not receive him into our home, and we should not even greet him, for if we greet him, we will participate in his sin (v. 11). This is an exclusion from the fellowship among the saints in the Body of Christ.
The person who went beyond the teaching of Christ in the apostles’ time is like today’s modernists, who do not believe that Christ is God. They say that Christ is merely a good man. Furthermore, they do not believe that Christ’s death was for redemption. They say that Christ’s death was merely a suffering of martyrdom because of His teaching. In ancient times such persons were there already. This kind of person must be rejected by the church from the church’s fellowship.
Turning Away from Those Who Make Divisions and Causes of
Stumbling Contrary to the Teaching of the Apostles
Romans 16:17 charges us to turn away from those who make divisions and causes of stumbling contrary to the teaching of the apostles. We must turn away from anyone who makes divisions and should not contact such persons to fellowship with them. This is another exclusion from the fellowship in the Body of Christ. Some say that the apostle’s charge to deal with the divisive ones in Romans 16:17 should not be applied to the division-makers in the Lord’s recovery today. They say that Romans 16:17 refers to men who do not serve our Lord, but their own stomach, as mentioned in the next verse, and that the division-makers in the Lord’s recovery today are not this kind of person. But we need to realize that in Romans 16:17 the apostle condemns the action of making divisions, regardless of what kind of person makes the divisions. A brother may be very right in every regard as a Christian, but if he makes divisions in the church or among the churches, he should be condemned and quarantined as the apostle charged. (Ministry of the New Testament and the Teaching and Fellowship of the Apostles, msg. 2)