THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
Christ, the Spirit, Life, and the Church
Message Five
The Church as the Consummation of
the Essence Revealed in the Bible
Scripture Reading: 1 Tim. 3:15-16; Eph. 1:13; Col. 1:5; Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Tim. 3:15; John 1:1, 14; Col. 2:9
I. The Lord’s recovery is a recovery of the truth and of life so that He may have the church; the truth brings in life, and once we have life, we become the church—John 18:37; 10:10; 1 Cor. 10:32: (2011 ITERO-Fall, msg. 1)
A. The church is the house of the living God—1 Tim. 3:15: (2011 ITERO-Fall, msg. 1)
1. As the house of God, the church is the dwelling place of God—the place where God can have His rest and put His trust—Eph. 2:21-22. (2011 ITERO-Fall, msg. 1)
2. The church as the house of God is the Father’s house, the enlarged, universal, divine-human incorporation—John 14:2; 12:23; 13:31-32. (2011 ITERO-Fall, msg. 1)
B. The church is the supporting pillar and the holding base of the truth—1 Tim. 3:15: (2011 ITERO-Fall, msg. 1)
1. Truth in 1 Timothy 3:15 refers to the real things revealed in the New Testament concerning Christ and the church—Matt. 16:16, 18; Eph. 5:32. (2011 ITERO-Fall, msg. 1)
2. As the pillar, which bears the truth, and the base, which holds the pillar, the church testifies the truth, the reality, of Christ as the mystery of God and of the church as the mystery of Christ—Col. 2:2; Eph. 3:4. (2011 ITERO-Fall, msg. 1)
C. The church is the corporate manifestation of God in the flesh; the great mystery of godliness is that God has become man so that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead to produce a corporate God-man for the manifestation of God in the flesh—1 Tim. 3:15-16: (2011 ITERO-Fall, msg. 1)
1. God’s manifestation was first in Christ as an individual expression in the flesh—v. 16; Col. 2:9; John 1:1, 14. (2011 ITERO-Fall, msg. 1)
2. God is manifested in the church as His enlarged, corporate expression in the flesh—Eph. 2:19; 1:22-23. (2011 ITERO-Fall, msg. 1)
II. The church is the house of the living God—1 Tim. 3:15: (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
A. The house of God is the household of God—Eph. 2:19: (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
1. The household of God is composed of the many sons of God as the many brothers of Christ, the firstborn Son of God—Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:10-12. (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
2. The Father is not a separate member of His household but is in all the children—Rom. 8:10; 12:4-5; 2 Cor. 6:16. (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
B. In speaking of the church as the house of God, Paul refers to God as the living God—1 Tim. 3:15: (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
1. The living God, who lives in the church, must be subjective to the church and not merely objective—1 Cor. 3:16. (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
2. Because God is living, the church as the house of God is also living in Him, by Him, and with Him; a living God and a living church live, move, and work together—Matt. 16:16; 1 Tim. 3:15. (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
C. As the house of God, the church is the dwelling place of God—the place where God can have His rest and put His trust—Eph. 2:22: (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
1. In this dwelling place God lives and moves to accomplish His will and to satisfy the desire of His heart—1:5, 9, 11; Phil. 2:13. (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
2. In the church as His dwelling place, God expresses Himself; all that He is and all that He is doing are expressed in the church—1 Cor. 3:16; 14:24-25. (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
III. The church is the pillar and base of the truth—1 Tim. 3:15: (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
A. The Lord wants His church to know Him as the truth and to receive and enjoy Him as life—1 John 1:1-2, 5-6; John 11:25; 14:6; 18:37b. (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
B. Truth means reality, denoting all the real things revealed in God’s Word, which are mainly Christ as the embodiment of God and the church as the Body of Christ—1 Tim. 2:4; Col. 2:9, 19. (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
C. The content of the church must be the growth of Christ in us as truth and life—v. 19; 3:4. (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
D. The church is the supporting pillar and the holding base of the truth—1 Tim. 3:15: (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
1. The truth is the Triune God, having Christ as the embodiment, center, and expression to produce the church as the Body of Christ, the house of God, and the kingdom of God—Col. 2:9; Eph. 1:22-23; 4:16; 1 Tim. 3:15; John 3:3, 5. (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
2. Truth in 1 Timothy 3:15 refers to the real things revealed in the New Testament concerning Christ and the church according to God’s New Testament economy—Matt. 16:16, 18; Eph. 5:32. (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
3. The church bears Christ as the reality; the church testifies to the whole universe that Christ, and Christ alone, is the reality—John 1:14, 17; 14:6. (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
IV. The church is the manifestation of God in the flesh—1 Tim. 3:15-16: (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
A. God’s manifestation was first in Christ as an individual expression in the flesh—v. 16; Col. 2:9; John 1:1, 14. (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
B. First Timothy 3:15-16 indicates that not only Christ Himself as the Head is the manifestation of God in the flesh but also that the church as the Body of Christ and the house of God is the manifestation of God in the flesh—the mystery of godliness. (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
C. When a church is taken care of according to what is written in 1 Timothy 1—3, the church will function as the house of the living God for His move on earth and as the pillar and base of the truth, bearing the reality of Christ and His Body—3:15; Eph. 5:32: (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
1. Such a church becomes the continuation of Christ’s manifestation of God in the flesh—Christ lived out of the church as the manifestation of God. (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
2. This is God manifested in the flesh in a wider way according to the New Testament principle of incarnation—God entering into man and mingling Himself with man to make man one with Himself—1 Cor. 7:40; Gal. 2:20; John 15:4-5. (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
V. The desire of the Lord’s heart is to gain the church; thus, we should treasure the church and love the church, even as the Lord does and as Paul did—Matt. 16:18; 13:44-46; Acts 20:28; Eph. 1:5, 9; 5:25-27; 2 Cor. 12:14-15. (2010 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)