In the previous chapter we saw five points concerning the church. The church is something of God’s eternal purpose, something planned, purposed, by God in eternity past and for eternity to come. Therefore, the church is something eternal. If we have the revelation from the Word of God, we will realize that the church is the center of God’s eternal purpose. What God purposed in eternity past and for eternity to come is to have a church as the center of His purpose. Thus, the church is a central and eternal matter. Second, we saw that in the Old Testament time the church was a mystery hidden in God. Before the New Testament time the church was in the mind of God, but God never revealed it to anyone. Third, we saw the source of the church. The source of the church is Christ Himself, the Son of God. The church is something out of Christ Himself and a part of Christ Himself as His increase and as a counterpart to match Him. By this we can see that Christ is the nature of the church. Fourth, we saw the functions of the church. On one hand, it is a Body to Christ, and on the other hand, it is a house to God. These are the two aspects of the function of the church. Fifth, we saw clearly that the practice of the church, strictly speaking, can never be universal. It must be local. The universal practice is all the practices of the churches in their localities added together. Without or besides the local practices, we can never have the universal practice of the church.
In this chapter we shall consider some further points concerning the church. The sixth point is the expression of the church. This seems very close to the practice of the church, yet there is a difference. The church is something real and is very substantial; it is not something “in the air” or merely a theory in our mind. It is something composed of all the redeemed believers in the New Testament time built together with the Triune God. Therefore, it is very real and substantial, so there must be an expression of this real and substantial matter.
The church is expressed on this earth. It is absolutely wrong to think that the church is something expressed in heaven. There is no verse in the Scriptures to support this wrong idea. The church is not expressed in heaven, but on the earth. I have spent much time to study the New Testament to find out whether there is something of the church in heaven. I speak the truth: I cannot find such a thing. Is there a verse in the twenty-eight chapters of Matthew, for example, to prove that the church today is in heaven? Is there such a word concerning the church in Mark, Luke, John, Acts, or the Epistles? First Thessalonians 4:17 says that we shall meet the Lord in the air, but that will be at the Lord’s coming. By this verse we cannot prove that the church is in heaven today.
The church is heavenly, but the church is not in heaven. Many of the saints, including Abraham, David, and Paul, are in Paradise, but none of them are in heaven. In his reference Bible, Dr. C. I. Scofield says that Paradise, where the saved ones are, was translated from the pleasant part of Hades to the third heavens when the Lord was resurrected and ascended to heaven. However, in Acts 2:34, when Peter stood up to speak on the day of Pentecost, he said that David had not ascended into heaven. The spirits and souls of all the dead saints, both from the Old Testament time and the New Testament time, are in Paradise and not in heaven. Therefore, we cannot find a verse to prove that the church today is in heaven.
The expression of the church is one hundred percent upon this earth in localities, in one place after another. The first expression of the church was in Jerusalem, in a locality, a city, a place on this earth. After that, there were many expressions in Judea and Samaria. Then the expression of the church expanded to Antioch, and it turned to the west, to many cities in Asia Minor. In each city there was an expression of the church. There was one in Ephesus, one in Smyrna, one in Pergamos, one in Thyatira, one in Sardis, one in Philadelphia, and one in Laodicea. In each city there was an expression of the church. If we follow the record of the Acts and the Epistles, we will find that the church is something expressed on this earth in place after place, in city after city.
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