5. Meditation: Chapter 4. The Ministry Of The Assembly - Part 2. The Battle For The Lord's Testimony

Chapter 4

The Ministry Of The Assembly: 

Part 2. The Battle For The Lord’s Testimony 

John 2:13-25

The Material Temple 

The material temple of Jews is an indicator of their spirituality. There are many spiritual lessons which we could learn from the history of Jewish temple. May the Holy Spirit unveil them to us gradually! 

In the epoch of David and Solomon, the God of Israel occupied a supreme place in the whole country and was honored, sanctified, worshiped and magnified by people. The glory of God’s testimony also mightily influenced the nations around the Israel. The temple is filled with God’s glory when their spiritual condition is on high level. However, we know that when Solomon was old, his foreign wives turned away his heart after other gods. The Israel was mixed with the God of this world. The long and terrible story of the temple began since that time. 

The temple was destroyed by Chaldeans after the Jews neglected the warnings and voices of repentance by many prophets. The glory of Jehovah sorrowfully departed from His house in the book of the prophet Ezekiel. After seventy years of captivity in Babylon, the awakened remnants of Israel, led by Ezra and Nehemiah, returned to Jerusalem and rebuilt the temple and its wall arduously. However, unfortunately the rebuilt temple had progressively became the dead, fixed, complicated and mixed religious system without leading people in touch with living God. And the cool and ruthless Pharisees originated from this epoch.   

In new testament, here (John 2) we have a picture of cleansing of Jewish temple by jealous Christ and a prophecy of destruction of it. This is the first time of cleansing of temple by the angry Jesus at the beginning of His ministry. And the second time is at the end of His ministry of three and half years, and He added some words to this temple: He says to them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of robbers (Matthew 21:13, Darby’s Bible Version). 

This Jewish temple brought so many disappointments, angers, griefs and sorrows to Jesus. Therefore He decided to destroy this useless temple and prophesied that not a stone shall be left here upon a stone which shall not be thrown down (Matthew 24:1-2). In 70 A. D., the General Titus of Roman led his military to destroy the Jewish temple, and the Lord’s prophecy was fulfilled. The material temple of Jews is really a tragic play!  

The True Temple Is Christ

But God took away the first, that He may establish the second! Let us directly turn from the material temple (shadow) to the true temple (body). The great reality as to the temple in the new dispensation of Holy Spirit is that Christ is the true temple for God to dwell in. John 17:21: Thou, Father, in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. 2 Corinthians 5:19: how that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. The Most High dwells not in places made with hands!

Isaac Watts (1674-1748), The Father of English Hymnody, wrote a hymn: “O God! We see Thee in the Lamb to be our hope, our joy, our rest”. Today the God is in Christ, if any soul desires to meet and know God, he must abandon all other grounds (race, learning, education, natural ability and temperament, good deeds, money etc.) and receive the crucified Christ as the only access to God. For Christ is the way, and the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father unless by Him.

One of the most important phrases in new testament is “In Christ”. And of Him are we in Christ Jesus, Who has been made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness…”In Christ” is the blessed position where God placed Christians into. For in Christ dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; and we are complete in Him. We have to abide and stay in Christ because without Him we can do nothing.

The Assembly (Church) Is The Temple Of His Body

The Risen Lord breathed into the disciples and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. At the Pentecost, in the power of one Spirit the one hundred and twenty people had been baptized into the Christ’s body, and all been given to drink of one Spirit. Today we belong to the Christ’s body by the baptism of the resurrection from the dead (Roman 6:3-5) 1 Corinthians 6:19: Do ye not know that your body is temple of the Holy Spirit which in you, which ye have of God; and ye are not your own? 1 Peter 2:5: yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house. Jesus lived as a Nazaraean on the earth for thirty three and half years. His salvation of cross had released out His life. The fruitful death of Jesus produces so full life that He must seek the huge vessel to contain His risen life (John 12:24). And the assembly is that corporate vessel to contain His full and excellent life. Jesus Christ is still alive on the earth by the indwelt Spirit in numerous saints during twenty one centuries. What a full resurrection from the dead! 

The Definition Of The Assembly

If we are the earnest Christians before the Lord, we have to clarify an important question: “What is the assembly?”. Let us try to know the meaning of the assembly more clearly by His words. Ephesians 1:22-23: and has put all things under His feet, and gave Him (Christ) head over all things to the assembly, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all. The two verses teach us that the assembly is container of the Christ’s fulness, in other words, the assembly is that corporate, grand and infinite Christ. That is plain but profound definition of the assembly.  

   In the conception of bible, the assembly is not a building, not a space and not a fixed location. She also has nothing to with days, seasonal festivals and years. She does not belong to the realm of material, space and time. And she derives her uniqueness directly from that heavenly, spiritual, unlimited and eternal Christ. 

She is so supernatural and independent of the world because of drawing upon the heavenly Christ as her boundless resources. She is so restful and satisfactory because of owning the all-sufficient Christ. She is so dreadful to the Devil because putting on the triumphant Christ as her panoply. She is so beautiful because of adorning herself with the glorious Christ. She is so mighty and powerful because the risen Christ is enough for her to overcome the power of death. The assembly is that Christ!

The Modern Assembly Had Gone Astray

A. J. Gordon (1836-1895), an American brother, evangelist and bible expositor, wrote his book “How Christ Came To Church” on account of his real dream. He dreamed that Jesus came to his chapel on Sunday morning, and he was going to preach on the pulpit before Jesus. This dream enlightened and changed his life violently. 

If Jesus comes to our assembly today, do you think He will care much about the size of our building, the number of our congregation, the pattern of our clothes, the food which we eat at love-feast, and the money which we collect for Him? I don’t think so. I personally believe that Jesus will seek Himself in our assembly. What He most cares about is whether the measure of Christ’s fulness is formed in us more and more (Ephesians 4:13). 

The modern assembly had gone astray, and we wasted too much upon what the Lord is not after. We spent much to pursue after the outward and tumultuous religious activities or services, but would not sit down at the feet of Jesus to listen to His words by reading the bible. To draw near to God in private prayer became too difficult for us because we are too busy and preoccupied by trivial matters. We lost the divine and spiritual hunger or appetite, which existed in past great and pious saints, by being content with the superficial, shallow, barren and vacuous sermons or doctrines. We suffered from spiritual poverty and had nothing to supply others because we are not willing to pay the price to obtain the spiritual treasure. 

The gospel which we preached is so different from Paul’s gospel. The vision of Paul’s ministry is to lead the hungry hearts into the unsearchable riches of the Christ (Ephesians 3:8). Our gospel is so cheap and commercial (supposing that gain is godliness), but Paul’s gospel almost cost him everything. Our gospel (in absence of the cross) lost the mighty impact upon the world because we are desirous to oblige the world and to acquire its favour. We need to repent and confess our sins, failures and defections humbly (Nehemiah 1:4-7).  

The Jealous Jesus Will Cleanse Us Today

Christ, as Son over His house, Whose house are we. The angry Jesus once cleansed the material Jewish temple, today He will again purge the spiritual house (us, the assembly) in more zealous spirit individually and corporately. 

In individual way, Jesus will cast out all the rubbish in our life. The Holy Spirit will use the word of cross to rule out our love of the world, love of money, self-love, self-interest, self-confidence, personal ambitions, natural ability etc. The Lord knows our hearts are in a state of confusion and mixture by occupying so many unholy things. His cross must do the work of separation and division in us to distinguish between the holy and the unholy, and He will require us to cast away all the rubbish in His sight. If we allow His cross to work thus and to cleanse us more deeply, our life will be conformed to His image gradually, and He will add more and more His fulness of divine nature to us by the Holy Spirit. That is His great mercy! Moreover the cross also makes room for Christ in our hearts. The more Christ occupies us, and the more our life is in beautiful order and harmony.

In corporate way, the cross will destroy our proud denominational attitude, so that all of us may bind on humility towards one another and each esteems the other as more excellent than ourselves in lowliness of mind. 

Furthermore the cross will also eliminate the intermediate class, the clerical order and the works or doctrines of Nicolaitanes from the assembly. 

The intermediate class is always a tragedy of church history. The Pope and priests of Roman Catholic Church evilly replace the sovereign place of The Only Head - The Christ (Ephesians 4:15; Colossians 2:19). Sadly there are still many “little popes” in modern Christianity. We need the fire of Reformation of Martin Luther to rekindle our asleep hearts again! 

What about the clerical order in modern Christianity? Today we may easily make the service of God too official, mechanical, technical, formular, ceremonial, formal, artificial (especially in the clerical churches). However, the clerical spirit also could invade the churches without clerical system. The result is that there are many services are dead and without living revelation of the fresh anointing. Although there are many so-called services, Christians don’t further know more our precious Lord and His fulness by the rendered services. After the religious activities, people are the same old man without any change in the spiritual life! The services are almost without spiritual influence and impact upon human hearts. It is really a tragedy in modern Christianity!

On the other hand, Nicolaitanes set up a clerical system to signify that themselves are superior over the general God’s people (Revelation 2:6, 15). Unfortunately, the shadow of Nicolaitanes still appears in modern Christianity. 

In the end-time, the pastoral system will be a serious problem to the assembly. There were many excellent, sincere and humble pastors of England and America in the past pious generations during last three hundred years. However, today we have to face a sorrowful fact that the spiritual condition of pastoral system becomes very corruptive and horrible! Moreover basically Christians have no need of a pastor in this dispensation of the Holy Spirit (1 John 2:27). For the Holy Spirit is in charge of everything among the saints. We need to follow the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:17), not to follow the pastor or the crowd blindly. After all, in the end-time, the modern and popular Christianity is full of the hidden dangers. The safe way is simply back to the Lord Himself, the bible and the holy fellowship of pure saints in Christ.

Purposeful Purification

When the Lord severely refines us in His jealousy, we go through the painful, long, deep and dark process of purification under His mighty hand, and we feel ourselves are undone and finished because of being stripped of all but everything. And we don’t know the reason why the Lord treat us so relentlessly, and we sink into painful perplexity and despair. Sometimes we would say to Him: Dear Lord, I don’t see there is any spiritual benefits from your strict and strange dealings with me. However, blessed be our Lord! For His thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are our ways His ways, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways, and His thoughts than our thoughts. He is God of positive and divine purposes and always has them in view, even when we can’t feel that in painful purification of the cross. 2 Timothy 2:20-21: But in a great house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also wooden and earthen; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If therefore one shall have purified himself from these, he shall be a vessel to honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work. The Lord wishes that all of us to be the serviceable vessel of honour, and He wants to perfect and use us, not to destroy and forsake us, therefore He must thoroughly purify the dross from us.  

The Battle For The Lord’s Testimony

In the end-time, God needs the corporate vessel, the crucified people, to take up the responsibility of recovering Jesus’ testimony. Today the testimony of Christ’s resurrection from the dead is broken down everywhere. And meanwhile the earthly principles, worldly standards and carnal means had also massively intruded in every corner of God’s assembly, (just like the material Jewish temple is filled with oxen, sheep, money-changers, sellers and merchandise) therefore today there are so many confusions and mixtures in spiritual temple, and this mixed condition resulted in tremendous damage to the purity of Lord’s testimony. It is really our great sin and shame before the Lord!

However, the Lord never give up His will - to recover the testimony of God’s son in fulness. What is our part in this divine purpose? Firstly, we have to be the sanctified vessel by the work of cross. And then we need a deep concern and heart for Jesus’ testimony. The apostle Paul is our sample, and he once said: For I am jealous as to you with a jealousy of God; for I have espoused you unto one man, to present a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craft, your thoughts should be corrupted from simplicity as to the Christ (2 Corinthians11:2-3). And Our Lord’s experience is that the zeal of thy house devours me. Our experience should be the jealousy of thy assembly devours us! 

Moreover we need to pray the Lord earnestly to give us spiritual revelation from the bible and to open our eyes, in order that we could have enough spiritual understanding as to the testimony of Lord in the assembly in the end-time condition. So that we could clearly know what God is after, and how we could attain His purpose.

The spiritual discernment is also important. The doorkeepers of Jewish temple (in Chronicles) have to watch before the entrance. They must discern anything which pass by, and not to allow unholy thing to come in. Today we also need to discern and watch out anything (the sin, the world, the flesh, the self etc.) which is not according to God’s mind and His revelation, and not to allow them to creep in the assembly. If the profane things come in by our defections, we must cast them out immediately in uncompromising and brave spirit at any cost (Nehemiah 13:19-22). Therefore the spiritual courage for action is necessary. That is a searching challenge for us!

The Costly Price Of Battle

This is a serious spiritual battle for maintaining the purity of God’s testimony and the holiness and order of God’s house. We are in battleground, not the playground. God's house, which is assembly of living God, pillar and base of the truth. Christians should hold the truth in love, meanwhile, we have to contend earnestly for truth and faith. That is one of our divine vocation. The spirit of warfare should be recovered among us. Paul once said: I have combated the good combat, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7).

Psalm 69:7-9: Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; confusion hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's sons; For the zeal of thy house hath devoured me, and the reproaches of them that reproach thee have fallen upon me. The three verses speak forth the costly price of battle for testimony of God’s house. When we seek to set right the things according to God’s mind and His revealed will in God’s house, strangely we will not be supported and approved by our brethren, otherwise they will mistrust, despise, mock, oppose, reproach and even persecute us. And we will be unwelcome and unpopular. We are the troublemaker in their sight. They will say: you are mad and lost. But we deeply know that we are sober and must be faithful unto our Lord and His given revelation from the bible. 

Today the majority of Christians want the Christianity according their own natural mind, not God’s spiritual mind. They desire to build up a tangible, touchable, controllable and visible Christianity with beautiful appearance outwardly, but they are ugly inwardly, having a form of piety but denying the power of it. There is a sense in which that many Christians are still living in epoch of old testament because they are spending all their life (more than forty and six years) to build up a material Christianity which is just like the Jewish temple which the Lord decided to destroy. This is not a joke, but a tragedy!

Let us keep the Lord’s divine purpose in view. To recover the testimony of God’s son in fullness is our tremendous responsibility. This is a lonely and costly way. Shall two walk together except they be agreed?Sometimes we will lose the friendship, our frame, our influence etc for His full gospel. Paul once said: all who in Asia have turned away from me. Paul are lost!? Far from it! That is the price! May the Lord encourage us to pay the price for His full testimony in end-time!