In the last message, we saw Christ’s position in His ascension and the offices of Christ in His ascension. We also saw that the heavenly ministry of Christ is the continuation and complement of His earthly ministry. In this message, we want to see the practice of His heavenly ministry. In this practice are His responsibilities. Because He has such a wonderful position in the heavenlies with many offices, He bears many responsibilities.
Now in the heavens, Christ is ministering, and His ministry in the heavens today is for His church and His believers. He is doing something there for you and me. His ministry in the heavens is the continuation of His earthly ministry. Christ’s former ministry on this earth started from His being baptized in water and anointed with the Holy Spirit. When Christ came out of the water of baptism, the Spirit descended upon Him. Humanly speaking, His baptism in water was carried out by John the Baptist. At the same time, God the Father also anointed Him with the Holy Spirit. That was the start of Christ’s former ministry on this earth.
During the course of His human living in His earthly ministry, He did much visiting and teaching. We have stressed that we have to visit people for the preaching of the gospel to get them to believe and be baptized. Then we have to feed them. We also have to perfect them. Finally, we have to bring them into prophesying so that the Body of Christ might be built up. After Christ was baptized and anointed, He began to preach, to reach people. This was the first step of His ministry. He also fed people through His speaking and teaching. Furthermore, He perfected others. At least, He perfected the apostles who were with Him. At the time of His baptism, He was anointed with the economical Spirit for His ministry. In His ministry, He spoke for God and spoke forth God, that is, He prophesied. But His disciples had not yet received the economical Spirit. After they received the economical Spirit on the day of Pentecost, they began to prophesy.
While Jesus was on earth, He practiced preaching, feeding, perfecting, and prophesying. He carried these things out through His human living. Then He entered into His all-inclusive death, which consummated in His resurrection. That ended His earthly ministry. Then He entered into His ascension. His ascension may be likened to a boundary line between His earthly ministry and His heavenly ministry. Before His ascension was His earthly ministry; after His ascension is His heavenly ministry. Now we want to see the responsibilities which He bears in His heavenly ministry.
In His ministry in ascension, Christ bears the responsibility to take care of His church and His believers. Not many Christians realize that today Christ is working in the heavens to take care of the churches and His believers. Do we believe that even today He is taking care of us? He is in the heavens working for us. Without Christ’s working in the heavens, we could not live the Christian life and the church life.
In His ascension Christ is the Head of the church to take care of the church (Eph. 5:23a). He takes care of the church by nourishing and cherishing it (Eph. 5:29) to sanctify it (v. 26). Christ today is doing a sanctifying work. The Lord’s sanctifying work in us separates us from the world. When the sisters are looking for sales in the newspaper in the way of self-indulgence, they are out of Christ’s sanctification. They are making themselves common, worldly. By the sisters’ looking in the newspaper for sales to satisfy their lust, they become contaminated. Today Christ is carrying out a work to sanctify the church. The purpose of Christ in giving Himself to the church is to sanctify her, not only separating her to Himself from anything common but also saturating her with Himself that she may be His counterpart.
He sanctifies the church by cleansing her through the washing of the water in the word (Eph. 5:26). In the word is the flowing life of God typified by flowing water. When we read the Bible with a heart seeking after Christ, the word of the Bible washes us. The more we read the Bible, the more we get washed with the water in the word. Whether or not we remember what we have read, we still receive the washing. When a housewife washes dishes, she may rinse them again and again. This makes the dishes absolutely clean. In His sanctifying work, Christ “rinses” us again and again by the washing of the water in the word.
He sanctifies the church to make it a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle (Eph. 5:27). Spots are of the natural life, and wrinkles are a matter of oldness. Only the water of life can metabolically wash away such defects by the transformation of life. Eventually Christ’s sanctifying work will make the church glorious. Glory is God expressed. Hence, to be glorious is to be God’s expression. Eventually, the church presented to Christ will be a God-expressing one.