The Reality of the Body of Christ
Message Four
Blending for the Reality of 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:
1 Cor. 12:24-25 But our comely members have no need. But God has blended the body together, giving more abundant honor to the member that lacked, that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same care for one another.
10:17 Seeing that there is one bread, we who are many are one Body; for we all partake of the one bread.
Word of Appetizer
But God has blended the body together (1 Cor. 12:24), what’s the meaning of the word blended?
The word blended means “adjusted,” “harmonized,” “tempered,” and “mingled,” implying the losing of distinctions; to be blended means that you are touched by others and that you are touching others by going through the cross, doing things by the Spirit, and doing everything to dispense Christ for His Body’s sake.
Spiritual Burden
The reality of the Body of Christ is the corporate living by the perfected God-men, who are genuine men but are not living by their life but by the life of the processed God, whose attributes have been expressed through their virtues.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
The highest peak in God’s economy is the reality of the Body of Christ; the reality of the Body of Christ is absolutely and altogether organic.
The Lord’s recovery is for the building up of the Body of Christ; thus, to know the Body is the proper recovery of the Lord.
God has blended the Body together; the word blended means “adjusted,” “harmonized,” “tempered,” and “mingled,” implying the losing of distinctions.
The purpose of the blending is to usher us all into the reality of the Body of Christ.
This corporate and mingling living by the perfected God-men, consummates ultimately in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth as God’s increase and expression for eternity.
The Experience of Life
Blending means that we should always stop in order to fellowship with others; we should not do anything without fellowshipping with the other saints who are coordinating with us, because fellowship adjusts us, harmonizes us, tempers us, and mingles us.
Practice and Application
In order to be harmonized, blended, adjusted, mingled, and tempered in the Body life, we have to go through the cross and be by the Spirit, dispensing Christ to others for the sake of the Body of Christ.
We need to follow in the apostle’s footsteps to bring all the saints into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ; the apostle brought us into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ by recommendations and greetings in order that the God of peace may crush Satan under our feet and we may enjoy the rich grace of Christ.
Using Key Verses to Have a Bird’s-Eye View over the Whole Outline
Key Verses (1)
Rom. 12:4-5 For just as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we who are many are one Body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
Eph. 1:22-23 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.
I. The highest peak in God’s economy [is] the reality of the Body of Christ; the reality of the Body of Christ is absolutely organic.
II. The Lord’s recovery is for the building up of the Body of Christ.
- The church takes the Body of Christ as its organic factor; without the Body of Christ the church is lifeless and is a mere human organization.
- The Body is the intrinsic significance of the church.
- The elders should shepherd one another and love one another to be a model of the Body life
- If we would have the reality of the Body of Christ, we must allow Christ to make His home in our hearts.
- The Lord urgently needs the reality of the Body of Christ to be expressed in the local churches.
- The Lord needs the overcomers to carry out the economy of God to have the Body of Christ and to destroy His enemy.
- The Lord’s recovery is to build up Zion—the overcomers as the reality of the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem; in the church life we must endeavor to reach today’s Zion.
Key Verses (2)
1 Cor. 12:24-25 But our comely members have no need. But God has blended the body together, giving more abundant honor to the member that lacked, that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same care for one another.
Rom. 16:1 I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a deaconess of the church which is in Cenchrea.
6 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.
20 Now the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
III. God has blended the Body together
IV. Bringing all the saints into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ
- The word blended means “adjusted,” “harmonized,” “tempered,” and “mingled,” implying the losing of distinctions.
- In order to be blended for the reality of the Body of Christ, we have to go through the cross and be by the Spirit to dispense Christ to others for the building up of the Body of Christ.
- Blending means that we should always stop in order to fellowship with others; we should not do anything without fellowshipping with the other saints who are coordinating with us.
- Such a blending is not social but the blending of the very Christ whom the individual members, the district churches, the co-workers, and the elders enjoy, experience, and partake of.
- The apostle brought us into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ by recommendations and greetings in order that the God of peace may crush Satan under our feet and we may enjoy the rich grace of Christ.
Key Verses (3)
1 Cor. 10:17 Seeing that there is one bread, we who are many are one Body; for we all partake of the one bread.
Gal. 2:20 I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me…
Phil. 3:10 To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.
V. The purpose of the blending is to usher us all into the reality of the Body of Christ.
VI. The reality of the Body of Christ is the corporate living by the perfected God-men.
VIII. This corporate and mingling living by the perfected God-men, consummates ultimately in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth.
- We need to be in the local churches as the procedure to be brought into the reality of the Body of Christ as the goal.
- Paul’s thought of the church being one bread (1 Cor. 10:17) was not his own invention; rather, it was taken from the Old Testament with the meal offering (Lev. 2:4); it is not a physical matter; the significance of our blending is the reality of the Body of Christ.
- The reality of the Body of Christ is the corporate living by the perfected God-men, who are genuine men but are not living by their life but by the life of the processed God, whose attributes have been expressed through their virtues.
- The reality of the Body of Christ is the mingling living in the eternal union of the regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite God-men with the Triune God in the resurrection of Christ
- This corporate and mingling living by the perfected God-men, consummates ultimately in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth as God’s increase and expression for eternity.
Prophesying Topics—Twelve Topics per Week
D1
T1 The highest peak in God’s economy is the reality of the Body of Christ—Rom. 12:4-5
(Please illustrate that the reality of the Body of Christ is absolutely organic)
T2 The Body is the church’s intrinsic significance—vv. 4-5
(Please illustrate that what is the difference between the church and the Body?)
D2
T1 Many churches are one Body—Rev. 1:11
(Please illustrate that this unique Body of Christ is expressed in many local churches.)
T2 The God-men who were perfected and matured are Zion, the overcomers —20:4-6
(Please illustrate that the reality of the Body of Christ is the aggregate, the totality, of such a living by a group of God-men.)
D3
T1 God has blended the Body together—1 Cor. 12:24
(Please illustrate that what is the meaning of the word blended?)
T2 Fellowship tempers us, adjusts us, harmonizes us—vv. 24-25
(Please illustrate that when we blend together, we have the cross and the Spirit with experience.)
D4
T1 The blending and fellowship of the Body life—Rom. 16:1, 16
(Please illustrate that Romans 16 shows us by what the apostles brought us into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ.)
T2 The reality of the fellowship and blending of the Body of Christ—v. 20
(Please illustrate that through the fellowship in the Body, the crushing of Satan, and the enjoyment of grace.)
D5
T1 The local churches are the procedure God takes to reach the goal of His economy—Eph. 4:4
(Please illustrate that the purpose of the blending is to usher us all into the reality of the Body of Christ)
T2 A type of the blending—Lev. 2:4
(Please illustrate that the flour of the meal offering was mingled with the oil—that is the blending.)
D6
T1 The reality of the Body of Christ is the corporate living by the perfected God-men—Gal. 2:20
(Please illustrate that to be perfected…is to be matured by continually exercising to reject the self and live by another life with experience.)
T2 The reality of the Body of Christ is also a mingling living.—Phil. 1:21
(Please illustrate that this living is not completed; it is still going on with experience).
