The Recovery Of The Church
Message Seven
The Status of the Church—the Body of Christ
Opening Word of the Prophesying Meeting
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
And He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all. –Eph. 1:22-23.
For even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ. For also in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit.– 1 Cor.12:12-13.
Word of Appetizer
Ephesians 1:22 and 23 reveal that the church is the Body of Christ; how the Body of Christ has been formed ?
In Christ’s resurrection the processed and consummated Triune God has been wrought into His chosen people. In Christ’s ascension the all-inclusive, compound Spirit, as the consummation of the processed Triune God, descended upon His chosen people. In this way the believers in Christ become the Body of Christ, an organism produced through the mingling of the processed and consummated Triune God with the transformed tripartite man
Spiritual Burden
The Lord desires to recover the organic building up of the Body of Christ; The Lord desires to recover the church meetings in mutuality with all prophesying (speaking for the Lord) for the building up of the church; prophesying is the excelling way to dispense the riches of Christ into God’s people for the organic building up of the Body of Christ
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
Ephesians 1:22 and 23 reveal that the church is the Body of Christ.
We need to see clearly how the Body of Christ has been formed.
The reality of the Body of Christ is the Spirit of the reality of the Triune God.
For the building up of the Body of Christ, we need to practice the scriptural way to meet and to serve.
The Experience of Life
The baptism into the one Body has positioned us all to drink, and by drinking of the Spirit, we are constituted to be the Body. By drinking the Spirit, we experience the dispensing of the Divine Trinity into our being and are constituted to be the Body
Practice and Application
For the building up of the Body of Christ, we need to practice the scriptural way to meet and to serve. The scriptural way is spiritual, fits the taste of the living and spiritual man, and requires us to be living and in the spirit
What then, brothers? Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.– 1 Cor.14:26
Using Key Verses to Have a Bird’s-Eye View over the Whole Outline
Key Verses (1)
And He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all. –Eph. 1:22-23
the church is the Body of Christ
how the Body of Christ has been formed
Ephesians 1:22 and 23 reveal that the church is the Body of Christ
•The church is not an organization but an organic Body constituted of all the believers, who have been regenerated and have God’s life, for the expression of the Head
•The Body is the fullness of the Head, and the fullness is the expression of the Head
•The church is the Body of Christ, and Christ is the Head of the church
We need to see clearly how the Body of Christ has been formed
•The believers in Christ become the Body of Christ, an organism produced through the mingling of the processed and consummated Triune God with the transformed tripartite man
Key Verses (2)
Even the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you.—John14:17
For even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ. For also in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit.– 1 Cor.12:12-13
The reality of the Body
the corporate Christ
I. The reality of the Body of Christ is the Spirit of the reality of the Triune God
Reality refers to the real condition o f persons and things
II.The church as the Body of Christ is the corporate Christ
• In 1 Corinthians 12:12 the Christ is not the individual Christ but the corporate Christ, the Body-Christ, composed of Christ Himself as the Head and the church as His Body, with all the believers as its members
• As a vine includes not only the stalk but also the branches, so the corporate Christ, the Body-Christ, includes not only Christ Himself but also the members of Christ’s Body, who are the members of Christ, parts of Christ
• The baptism into the one Body has positioned us all to drink of the one Spirit, and by drinking of the Spirit, we are constituted to be the Body, the corporate Christ
Key Verses (3)
What then, brothers? Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.– 1 Cor.14:26
Not abandoning our own assembling together, as the custom with some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more as you see the day drawing near.—Heb.10:25
V. For the building up of the Body of Christ, we need to practice the scriptural way to meet and to serve
•Without the biblical way for us to meet and to serve, the way that is shown in the New Testament, the Lord’s words concerning the building up of the church cannot be fulfilled
• If 1 Corinthians 14:26 and Hebrews 10:24-25 are not fulfilled, there is no way for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
•The scriptural way to meet and to serve, with all the saints functioning as living members of the Body of Christ, is versus the traditional way, the natural way, to meet and to serve, which is in the principle of the clergy-laity system
• The Lord desires to recover the organic building up of the Body of Christ
Prophesying Topics—Twelve Topics per Week
D1
T1 The church is the Body of Christ(Eph.1:23; Col.1:18)
(Please illustrate that the church is the Body of Christ, and Christ is the Head of the church)
T2 the Body of Christ(1Cor.12:27)
(How the Body of Christ has been formed?)
D2
T1 The reality of the Body of Christ(John 14:17)
(Please illustrate that the reality of the Body of Christ is the Spirit of the reality of the Triune God)
T2 This is the Spirit of the reality of the Triune God becoming the reality of the Body of Christ. (John 16:13-15)
(Please illustrate that this Spirit of reality makes everything of the processed Triune God a reality in the Body of Christ)
D3
T1 the individual Christ and the corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12; Eph.5:32)
(Please illustrate that the church as the Body of Christ is the corporate Christ)
T2 The baptism into the one Body(1 Cor. 12:13)
(Please illustrate that by drinking of the Spirit, we are constituted to be the Body, the corporate Christ)
D4
T1 care only for Christ and for the church (Eph.5:32)
(Please illustrate that we can gain much more of the riches of Christ when we care for both Christ and the church.)
T2 to build up the church as the dwelling place of God and as the Body of
Christ (1 Cor.14:26; Heb.10:25)
(Please illustrate the difference between the biblical way for us to meet and to serve and the traditional way to meet and to serve)
D5
T1 the biblical way for us to meet and to serve(John 4:23-24; Acts 13:52)
(Please illustrate that to take this way, what kind of live should we live)
T2 The traditional way has not only bound and annulled the spiritual function of the members of Christ but also has choked and even killed the living members of Christ for all the time in the past history of the church. (Rev.2:6)
(Please illustrate that the traditional way has bound and annulled the organic function of the members of the Body of Christ for many centuries(Rev.2:6)
D6
T1 to build up the Body of Christ(Eph. 4:12, 16)
(Please illustrate that the scriptural way to meet and to serve is able to develop the organic function and ability of the members of Christ and is able to build up the Body of Christ. )
T2 The building up of the Body must be organic. Eph. 4: 16)
(Please illustrate that the organic building up of the Body of Christ is the increase of the Triune God in the believers for their growth in Christ)
