Recover Gospel Preaching by the Entire Church
Recover Gospel Preaching by the Entire Church
In this matter of the gospel, we need to restore the preaching of it by the whole church. This is done not by advertising in the paper but by brothers and sisters going out to invite people in (see Luke 14.23). There is a world of difference between personal invitation and invitation through advertisement. The whole church will rise up and serve. Such service is body ministry. We do not arrive at God’s standard if only a few people are serving.
Today’s way lies in authority plus galvanizing the one-talent services. Authority plus the one-talents, and vice versa: that is the church. Whether a local church does well depends on how many of the one-talent brethren come forward. It is not enough simply to have the two-talents and the five-talents brethren. Our work is a failure if we are unable to bring in the one talents.
Nevertheless, let us be aware that the flesh follows closely on the heels of the one-talent service. Before you yourself as a worker learn submission, you are ignorant of any insubjection against you. But once you do learn submission, you immediately sense the presence of insubordination. If we who are responsible in the church are well coordinated, there will be authority in our midst. And with authority present, all rebellion and insubjection can be dealt with.
May I ask my fellow workers if you feel tired after having labored unceasingly? Perhaps God now wants us to let go. For the way for this day lies not in individual endeavor, but in body ministry and body action. The Church is a reservoir of Christ, that is to say, all the fullness of Christ dwells in the body (Eph. 1.23). If one day we see the entire local church preaching the gospel, how beautiful and how effective this will be.
Today there are few spiritual giants. [Over] a century ago, with the Keswick movement, there were many. At that time people’s knowledge of God’s word was quite shallow. So that when an A. J. Pierson spoke, people found it hard to understand. Today our knowledge of the Bible has increased. Indeed, when someone begins to speak, we know more or less by his first words what he is going to discuss. Nowadays, a five-talent person such as Paul is most rare. Yet in spite of the rarity of such spiritual giants, the working together of a few one- and two-talent believers may well be equal to a Paul. Because there are so few Pauls, we must not wait for such spiritual giants to appear. We believe the time has arrived for the whole church to work, to save, and to preach the gospel. The way of the individual is over. Indeed, this is the day to follow the way of the body. We must be of one heart with God. We criticize denominations, and rightly so, denouncing their brand of sacerdotalism; but we are no different in principle from them if the service of the church is monopolized by a worker plus a few elders in the place of all the brothers and sisters laboring together.
Hence, as fellow workers our work today is not to work on behalf of the people, but to provoke them to work. Paul took Timothy into apprenticeship, and Timothy committed to other faithful men what he had learned from Paul (2 Tim. 2.2). These faithful ones then went out and energized more people. This is to be the way of our work today.
Heretofore we always worked for others: we worked till we contracted tuberculosis; it was all of no avail. Today’s way is to instruct the brothers and sisters to serve. This alone will succeed.
If one person monopolizes the work, this discourages brothers and sisters to serve. Such a path is definitely wrong. Today’s work of our fellow workers is to lead and help others to serve. Apportion to them the various services and let them do the work.
A deceased elderly brother once served in the navy. He told me that in firing the ship’s gun the cannon shells had first to be transported from the storage at the bottom of the warship to the gunner’s platform above in order for the gunner to shoot. The gunner himself did not go down to the storage to get the shells; not so. Now this elderly brother who told me this said that he served on this ship for many years. Yet during that entire period he himself had never once fired a shot; rather, he was always helping others to shoot. Today we need to do the work, as it were, of transporting the spiritual "ammunition" to the brothers and sisters to let them do the "shooting."
One day we workers shall pass away, and the next generation will carry on. In readying the next generation we cannot train merely a few for service. We must help the whole church enter into service. If one day there is such a church that does all things together—in the edification of the saints as well as in the preaching of the gospel—then that day will be marked out as a most wonderful accomplishment of the church. Thus, the entire responsibility rests upon us. We must see to it that every brother and sister is serving. For everyone is a priest of God. Brothers and sisters may possibly bring in the flesh, yet they must still be allowed to function; but in so doing there will be the opportunity for their flesh to be dealt with.
Some brothers may say to us, "But I have only a little, so I will not contribute my service." In response we must tell them, "No, you cannot be passive." It is so easy to bury the one talent. Many brothers and sisters are so frustrated by not knowing what is the right thing to do that they just give up. We must encourage them, however, to continue to serve. Believe me, this is the way. There will be such local churches in the near future. Then shall people see Philadelphia—the manifestation of genuine brotherly love.
Today’s responsibility lies with us. God must first find His way in us workers, and then in the local churches as a whole. God wishes to recover the Church of Christ to her early state. He has been working ceaselessly from the Garden of Eden, next through the period of the tabernacle and the temple, onward, then, to the Church, and finally to the Holy City—the eternal dwelling place of God. At that time, Satan can intrude no more.
