THE SECOND PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Full Ministry of Christ in the Stage of Inclusion
Message Three—Regenerating the Believers for His Body
Scripture Reading: Acts. 2:33, 36; 5:31; 10:36; Phil. 2:9-11; Heb. 12:2; John. 14:20
I. In His ascension Christ was inaugurated, exalted, and enthroned to execute God’s universal administration and to carry out God’s New Testament economy—Acts 2:33, 36; 5:31; Phil. 2:9; Rev. 5:6: (2014 TGC, msg. 4)
A. Christ’s ascension was His inauguration into His heavenly offices for His heavenly ministry; these offices include His being the Lord of all (Acts 10:36), the Christ (2:36), the Leader and Savior (5:31), the Ruler of the kings of the earth (Rev. 1:5), the Head of the church (Eph. 1:22-23), the Minister (Heb. 8:2), and the High Priest (4:14-15; 7:25-27). (2014 TGC, msg. 4)
B. Christ’s ascension was God’s exaltation of Him—2:33. (2014 TGC, msg. 4)
C. In His ascension Christ was enthroned to execute God’s universal administration and to carry out God’s New Testament economy—Rev. 5:6; Eph. 1:10. (2014 TGC, msg. 4)
II. Christ’s work of propagation is in His ascension—Matt. 28:19; Acts 1:8: (2014 TGC, msg. 4)
A. The subject of the book of Acts is the propagation of the resurrected Christ in His ascension, by the Spirit, through the disciples, for the producing of the churches—the kingdom of God—v. 3: (2014 TGC, msg. 4)
1. The propagation of the resurrected Christ in His ascension produces the churches—8:1; 13:1; 14:23. (2014 TGC, msg. 4)
2. The churches produced by the resurrected Christ in His ascension are the kingdom of God—19:8. (2014 TGC, msg. 4)
B. Propagation is carried out by the Lord on the throne in the heavens; this means that His work of propagation is in ascension—2:33, 36; Heb. 12:2; Rev. 5:6: (2014 TGC, msg. 4)
III. John 14:20 reveals that the consummated Triune God and the regenerated believers became an incorporation in the resurrection of Christ: (2005 MDC, msg. 5)
A. “In that day”—in the day of the Son’s resurrection. (2005 MDC, msg. 5)
B. “You will know that I am in My Father” (the Son and the Father are incorporated into one), “and you in Me” (the regenerated believers are incorporated into the Son and into the Father in the Son), “and I in you” (the Son in the Father is incorporated into the regenerated believers). (2005 MDC, msg. 5)
C. The in of the Spirit of reality in verse 17 (“the Spirit of reality…abides with you and shall be in you”) is the totality of the three ins in verse 20. (2005 MDC, msg. 5)
IV. This divine-human incorporation is the church as the house of the Father (vv. 2, 23), the vine tree of the Son (15:1-8, 16), and the new man of the Spirit (16:13-16, 19-22; Eph. 2:15; Col. 3:10-11): (2005 MDC, msg. 5)
A. The Father’s house is a matter of the Triune God—through incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection—working Himself into the believers in order to be fully mingled with them so that He may build them up as an organism for His dwelling and expression—14:2-3, 23: (2014 ICSC, msg. 1)
1. In 2:16 “My Father’s house” refers to the dwelling place of God on earth, the temple; the temple is a type, or figure, of the body of Jesus, which in resurrection has been enlarged to be the Body of Christ—vv. 19-22. (2014 ICSC, msg. 1)
2. The Father’s house is a divine and human incorporation of the processed and consummated God constituted with His redeemed, regenerated, and transformed elect—John 14:20. (2014 ICSC, msg. 1)
3. The Father’s house is built up by the constant visitation to the redeemed elect of the Father and the Son with the Spirit—v. 23. (2014 ICSC, msg. 1)
4. The Father’s house is in three stages: the stage of God incarnate, the stage of Christ resurrected with His believers to be built up as the church, and the consummate stage—the New Jerusalem—2:19-21; Rev. 21:2-3, 9-10. (2014 ICSC, msg. 1)
B. The Son’s vine is the organism of the Triune God in the divine economy to grow with His riches and express His life through the bearing of fruit—1 Tim. 1:4; Eph. 3:9; John 15:1, 5a: (2014 ICSC, msg. 2)
1. The function of the true vine as a sign of the Son is for the Triune God to have an organism in the Son for His multiplication, spreading, and glorification in His divine life—vv. 8, 16. (2014 ICSC, msg. 2)
2. God the Father as the husbandman is the source and the founder; God the Son is the center, the embodiment, and the manifestation; God the Spirit is the reality and realization; and the branches are the Body, the corporate expression—vv. 1, 4-5, 26. (2014 ICSC, msg. 2)
C. The third aspect of the incorporation of the consummated God with the regenerated believers is the Spirit’s child; the Father needs a house for His dwelling, the Son needs a vine for His spreading, and the Spirit needs a child for His moving—John 14:2; 15:1; 16:21: (2014 ICSC, msg. 3)
1. “A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow because her hour has come; but when she brings forth the little child, she no longer remembers the affliction because of the joy that a man has been born into the world”—v. 21. (2014 ICSC, msg. 3)
2. The accomplished fact of the birth of Christ and His believers as the corporate child, the new man, is applied to us in our experience by the work of the Spirit of reality so that we may become the many brothers of Christ, the members of Christ—John 16:8-11, 13-16; Rom. 8:29; Eph. 5:30. (2014 ICSC, msg. 3)
3. Now whatever the processed Triune God is and has may become our element, our essence, our being, making the processed Triune God the essence of our being—Eph. 3:16-17a. (2014 ICSC, msg. 3)
4. In this way we become God-men, the many brothers of Christ, living a life of truthfulness in the divine reality that has been revealed to us and constituted into us and putting on the new man, “which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the reality”—Eph. 4:24; Rom. 8:29; John 4:23-24; 2 John 1; 3 John 1. (2014 ICSC, msg. 3)
D. When we eat Christ, enjoy Christ by loving Him, we live by Him in this great incorporation, which today is the Body of Christ and which eventually consummates the New Jerusalem—John 6:48, 57; 14:23; Rev. 2:4, 7, 17. (2005 MDC, msg. 5)
F. Through His incarnation, death, and resurrection, Christ as the one grain of wheat became the many grains to be ground and blended together into one bread, which is the church as the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem—John 12:24; 1 Cor. 10:17. (2005 MDC, msg. 5)