THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
Life and Building
Message Three—Life and Building in the Gospel of John
Scripture Reading: John 1:1, 4, 12-14; 2:6-10, 16, 19, 21; 3:1 -8, 14-16; 10:10; 15:4; 14:2, 20, 23; 17:21 -23
I. The first two chapters of the sixty-six books of the Scriptures deal with God’s creation, while the third chapter to the end of the Scriptures deal with God’s building; God’s creation is for His building; today we are in the period of God’s building and under the process of God’s building—Gen. 1-2: (The Building of God, ch. 3)
A. The principle of God’s building is that God builds Himself into us and builds us into Him; that is, God mingles Himself with us, divinity with humanity, as one building—John 14:2, 20, 23. (The Building of God, ch. 3)
B. What God always has been doing, and what He still is doing, is working Himself into us, working us into God, and bringing all of us together as one in God and through God—Rom. 8:28-29. (The Building of God, ch. 3)
II. John is not merely a Gospel of life but a Gospel of life with building and for building—John 10:10; 1:1, 14: (CWWL, 1967, vol. 2, “The Experience and Enjoyment of Life for the Building Up”, ch. 1)
A. The Lord coming to be life to us is for the purpose of God’s building, the house of God; this is dealt with in the first chapter of John—vv. 1, 4, 14, 51. (The Building of God, ch. 3)
1. John 1:1 and 4 say, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.…In Him was life.” (The Building of God, ch. 3)
2. Moreover, verse 14 says that He was incarnated to be a man, and this very man is a tabernacle; that a tabernacle is a building shows that this very God with life in Him is for the building. (The Building of God, ch. 3)
3. The Lord came in the flesh as a tabernacle, and He told us that He is the heavenly ladder, which is for Bethel, the house of God and the temple of God—v. 51. (The Building of God, ch. 3)
B. The second chapter shows us that the Lord comes to be life to us, to bring life out of death, signified by the wine and the water, for the purpose of building up His mystical Body as the house of God—2:9: (The Building of God, ch. 3)
1. The principle of the Lord’s coming to be life to us is to bring life out of death, as signified by making wine out of water—v. 9. (The Building of God, ch. 3)
2. The purpose of the Lord’s coming to be life to us is for the building of the house of God—vv. 9, 4. (The Building of God, ch. 3)
3. In verse 19 Jesus said to the Jews, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up;” in and by His resurrection the Lord raised up and built up not only His physical body but also all the saints as the members of His mystical Body to be the temple of God, the church—v. 19. (The Building of God, ch. 3)
4. The way for the Lord to build up the house of God is to bring God into us and bring us into God to make us the abodes of God and to make God an abode for us, that is, to make God to dwell in us and us to dwell in Him so that God and we, we and God, become a mutual abode—14:2, 20, 23. (The Building of God, ch. 3)
C. John 15:4 says, “Abide in Me and I in you;” this mutual abiding is accomplished by the work of Christ—15:4: (The Building of God, ch. 3)
1. He came with God by incarnation, and He went with man by death and resurrection; His coming brought God into man, and His going brought man into God—1:14; 14:2. (The Building of God, ch. 3)
2. By this coming and going He builds up the house of God by building God into man and man into God. (The Building of God, ch. 3)
3. The building is accomplished first by His coming in incarnation to bring God into man and then by His going through death and resurrection to bring man into God: (The Building of God, ch. 3)
a. We humans would be far away from God; but by His death and resurrection, Christ eliminated the distance and prepared the way to bring us near to God and into God. (The Building of God, ch. 3)
b. He takes away the distance, that is, He takes away sin, the world, lust, the flesh, and even the enemy, Satan; He takes away even death; He takes away everything that is a barrier or hindrance between us and God to bring us near to God and into God. (The Building of God, ch. 3)
4. Now after His resurrection, He can say not only that He is in God and God is in Him but that we also are in Him and He is in us; this is the building of God mingled with humanity, which Christ accomplished by His death and resurrection. (The Building of God, ch. 3)
III. Life is for the building, and the building is of life; life is the Lord Himself, and the building is the issue of the experience of the Lord as life; the more we experience the Lord as life, the more we realize the divine building among us—15:5; 17:21: (The Building of God, ch. 3)
A. We can never have the real building of the church without the proper, adequate experience of life. If we abide in Christ and let Christ abide in us, we will realize the building of the church—15:5; 17:21: (The Building of God, ch. 3)
1. The more we experience the Lord as life, the more we realize the divine building among us. (The Building of God, ch. 3)
2. A vine has many branches, yet all the branches are one vine; when the branches all abide in the Lord, all the branches are one in the vine—15:5. (The Building of God, ch. 3)
B. If we say that we are abiding in the Lord, we must check whether or not we are one with the other members; in order to abide in the Lord, we must be one with all the other members, this is the reality of the building—Eph. 4:3-4: (The Building of God, ch. 3)
1. When we are in the Triune God, we are one; we can never be one in ourselves; we can be one only in God, in the Lord, and in the Spirit; this is the way to have the building. (The Building of God, ch. 3)
2. If everyone is in himself, and no one is in Christ, living and abiding in the Lord, there is no oneness; rather, there is separation and individuality. (The Building of God, ch. 3)
3. We are built together, not by teachings or doctrine but by the death and resurrection of the Lord; in the death and resurrection of the Lord, we are built up together as one in the Lord Himself. (The Building of God, ch. 3)
4. Whenever we meet with the saints as the church, we must not insist on anything; this means that we must put ourselves aside and put ourselves away; we must forget about ourselves. (The Building of God, ch. 3)
C. We have been put on the cross, and now it is the Lord who lives within us; this is the only way for the Lord to build up the church—Gal. 2:20: (The Building of God, ch. 3)
1. The more teachings we have, the more divisions we have, and the more discussions we have, the more opinions and the more divisions we have; the oneness of the divine building is possible only by our experience of the death and resurrection of the Lord. (The Building of God, ch. 3)
2. It is the cross and the resurrected Christ that bring us into God and bring God into us; it is by this death and resurrection that the Lord builds God and us in one another; this is the building of God. (The Building of God, ch. 3)