In this book we will fellowship concerning two basic, crucial, vital, and living matters in the New Testament: the apostles’ teaching and the New Testament leadership. These two matters in the New Testament are very crucial. We need the apostles’ teaching, and we also need the proper leadership. To annul these two matters is to annul the New Testament. The riches of Christ are conveyed in the teaching of the apostles and in the New Testament leadership.
The apostles’ teaching is the entire teaching of the New Testament from the first to the last page. It is not merely a part of the New Testament. All twenty-seven books of the New Testament are the apostles’ teaching.
The entire teaching of the New Testament, which is the apostles’ teaching, is God’s speaking, God’s oracle, in the Son to His New Testament people (Heb. 1:1-2). Hebrews 1:1-2 says, “In many portions and in many ways, God, having spoken of old to the fathers in the prophets, has at the last of these days spoken to us in the Son.” In the New Testament, God only speaks in one Person, the Son. It may seem that God spoke in the Son, Jesus Christ, only in the four Gospels, and that in Acts and the Epistles God spoke in Peter, Paul, James, John, and Jude. However, we should not consider that Peter, Paul, James, John, and Jude are separate from the Son of God. They are members of the corporate Son of God (1 Cor. 12:27). In Acts 9 when Saul of Tarsus was persecuting the followers of Jesus, he did not realize that he was persecuting Jesus. He thought he was only persecuting Stephen and the other believers. On his way to Damascus, however, Jesus appeared to him. Acts 9:4-5 says, “And he fell on the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? And he said, Who are You, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” This was not simply the individual Jesus, who is Christ. This was the enlarged, corporate Christ, and Stephen, Peter, and all His followers were His members. The entire New Testament is the speaking of God in the Son, regardless through whom He spoke, because the speakers in the New Testament spoke as the members of Christ.
Even today God is still speaking in the enlarged, corporate Son. When we speak as the members of Christ, our speaking becomes His speaking. Every time before I speak in a meeting, I like to offer a prayer: “Lord, be one spirit with me that I may be one spirit with You. Lord, speak in my speaking, making my speaking Yours.” This kind of prayer makes a difference in the speaking. When I speak in this way, I do not merely speak in myself; I speak in the Son.
God’s speaking in the Son to His New Testament people was firstly the direct teaching of the Lord Jesus in the four Gospels. These direct teachings of the Lord Jesus are the healthy words (1 Tim. 6:3a). They were spoken to His first group of disciples and were to be taught to all His disciples (Matt. 28:19-20). The Lord charged His first group of disciples in Matthew 28:19-20 to disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the Triune God, “teaching them to observe all things, whatever I commanded you” (v. 20a).
God’s speaking in the Son is also the teaching of the Spirit of truth (John 16:12-15). In John 16:12-13 the Lord told the disciples, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality; for He will not speak from Himself, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.” What the Spirit spoke through the New Testament writers was the speaking of Jesus.
The teaching of the Spirit of truth is the teaching according to godliness (1 Tim. 6:3b). Godliness is not merely piety, but the living that is the expression of God, the manifestation of God in the flesh. The teaching and speaking of the Spirit according to godliness is through the apostles. This teaching was firstly through Peter and Paul in Acts, including their words, their works, and their way of working. The words, works, and way of working of Peter and Paul in Acts were the Spirit’s speaking. This teaching was next through Paul in his fourteen Epistles, from Romans to Hebrews. Without the fourteen Epistles of Paul, there would be a gap in the New Testament that could not be bridged. The teaching of the Spirit of truth was next through James in his Epistle, Peter in his two Epistles, Jude in his Epistle, and John in his three Epistles and Revelation.
The arrangement of the books of the Bible was under the inspiration and sovereign control of the Spirit. After the Acts are the fourteen Epistles of Paul, followed by the short books of James, Peter, John, and Jude, and the book of Revelation. Paul’s speaking is lengthy, but the speaking of James, Peter, Jude, and John in their Epistles is shorter. The difference in the lengths of the Epistles may be compared to our functioning in the meetings. We all should speak, but sometimes our speaking should be short. The church needs the short speakings. However, some have to speak for a longer time. The longer speakings of Paul and John unveil to us the mystery of our mystical union with Christ. These two writers speak many times of our being in Christ and His being in us. The Gospel of John often uses the phrases “in Him” and “in Me” (7:5, 31, 38, 39, 48). John 14:20 says, “In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” Paul also says many times that we are in Christ and Christ is in us (Rom. 8:1; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 2:20).