This series of messages will cover first the apostles’ teaching and then the New Testament leadership.
Many Christians have never heard a message regarding the apostles’ teaching, and it may be that they have never even heard such terminology. Nevertheless, there is such a term in the Bible. Acts 2:42 says, “And they were continuing steadfastly in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.” This verse indicates that all the three thousand who were saved on the day of Pentecost continued in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles.
In this verse there are two things pertaining to the apostles: the teaching and the fellowship. According to my knowledge, after the apostles, only one group of Christians has paid adequate attention to this verse. Beginning from the 1820s, the Brethren stressed the apostles’ teaching very much. John Nelson Darby and other Brethren teachers stressed that we must continue in the apostles’ teaching and in the apostles’ fellowship.
We must continue in these two things—in the teaching of the apostles and in the fellowship of the apostles. If we intend to continue in the fellowship of the apostles, we must first continue in the teaching of the apostles. Teaching must come first; then fellowship follows. Very few Christians are able to tell us what the apostles’ teaching and the apostles’ fellowship are. Because these two things have been altogether neglected, all of Christianity is confused and divided. Today Christianity is characterized by confusion and division.
If there were no constitution in the United States, there could be no proper government. The Constitution controls all the laws. No legislation can be established that is not in the realm of the Constitution, because the Constitution is the very base or realm of any law that the legislators would make. The Constitution of the United States is higher even than the president of the United States. If a president does something that is contrary to the Constitution, he will no longer be justified in remaining in office.
During this past year some said that the church is the church of the saints, just as a democratic country is a country of the people. However, no democratic country is a country of lawless people. Rather, a proper country is a country of people who keep the constitution and live under the constitution. Even the number one person in this country, the president, must be under the Constitution. Everyone in this country must be under the Constitution absolutely.
Our constitution is the apostles’ teaching. I came to this country and began my ministry in December 1962. I have been ministering and serving here for over twenty-seven years. From the first year I said that everything we do must be according to the apostles’ teaching. The apostles’ teaching is our constitution. It is sad that nearly all of Christianity does not know the apostles’ teaching or even that there is such a thing. We received much help in this regard from the Brethren, who passed on to us some basic, proper teachings that are according to the apostles’ teaching.
In the term the apostles’ teaching, the word apostles’ is plural, but the word teaching is singular. The apostles’ teaching is the teaching of the apostles. It is not the teaching only of Peter, of John, or of Paul, but of others as well.
The apostles’ teaching does not concern matters such as whether we should baptize people in fresh water or salt water, whether we should use wine or grape juice at the Lord’s table, or whether the sisters should wear a head covering or not. All these minor things are not counted as the teaching of the apostles. Christians have fought over these things for centuries. Such disputes are nothing but vanity. This shows that Christians have not seen the light of the apostles’ teaching.