Moreover, as the church is expressed on this earth, that expression must be one. In every city, in every locality where people are gathered together, there must be an expression of the church, and that expression must be only one. It can never be and should never be more than one. In Jerusalem the expression of the church was one, in Antioch the expression of the church was one, and in Ephesus the expression of the church was one. We cannot find a case in the Scriptures where in a certain city there was more than one expression. This is simply because the church is one. The church is expressed on this earth in localities where people are gathered, and wherever there is an expression of the church in a locality, it must be one. When I was in New York, someone asked me what we should do with a church in a city that has millions of people. I turned the question to the one who asked it and said, “How many governments do you have in New York, and how many city halls do you have? Can you have more than one city hall in New York? Can you have two city halls? It is impossible.” To have two city halls in New York because it is so big means that we divide the one New York City into two cities.
We may think that in a city with a population of several million it is impossible for us to have one church. However, human society can have one city hall in a city with more than ten million people. To have one church in a city, there is no need for all the people to meet together in one meeting place. In a family of five persons it is not necessary to have all five persons in one room. One family may use many rooms, and the members of a family may even live in different apartments. A large family with a grandfather, grandmother, husband, wife, and many children and grandchildren may live in a large compound with several buildings. However, they are still one family. There is no need to meet in one place in order to be one church. We can have many meetings in a big city, but all the saints who meet in different places are still one church. Acts 2 and 4 say that at the time of the apostles the church in Jerusalem met in houses, from house to house. They had many separate meetings, but they were still one church. According to the first eight chapters of Acts, the saints in Jerusalem met in houses separately, but they were still called the one church in Jerusalem (8:1).
Large numbers are not a problem. On one day the apostles baptized three thousand people, and on another day five thousand were saved and baptized. They were able to do this because they had been trained while the Lord was on the earth. When the Lord fed the five thousand with five loaves and two fish, He trained the disciples. He did not pray and bless the loaves and then distribute them in a messy way to let the people fight over them. Rather, the Lord told the disciples to have the crowd sit in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. When people sit down, they are quiet and in order. This illustrates that to care for many people is easy. For the one hundred twenty disciples in Acts to take care of three thousand or five thousand on one day was not very difficult. We have had this experience. On one day in only two hours we baptized seven hundred people.
We need to realize that the church must be expressed on the earth in the localities where people are gathered. Moreover, each expression of the church, no matter where it is, must be one. There is no reason for us to be divided. If we go to London, there must be one church there; we belong to the church, so we meet with the church. We should not ask people there what kind of church they have, just as we cannot ask them what kind of moon they have. The moon is just one. In the same way, there is only one church. When I go to Los Angeles, I meet with the church there. Likewise, when I go to New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, or Hong Kong, I meet with the church there. There is no reason for us to be divided. We are members of the church. Wherever we go, we simply meet with the church. This is the proper way ordained by the Lord.
God ordained the church to be expressed in a very simple way. Where there is a gathering of people in a locality, we have to preach the gospel to them. Then some of them will be separated by the Lord’s salvation, and these separated ones need to come together as the expression of the church in that community, in that locality. The church is expressed on this earth in localities, and where there is an expression of the church, that expression must be one. Let us be simple. Let us not be complicated by the confusion in Christianity. It is a shame to ask people what church they belong to. If someone is a brother, that is all we need to know. I belong to the church, and you belong to the church. We all belong to the church.
More than thirty-two years ago, when we were in Shanghai, three or four brothers rode on a street car to go to the meeting, each with a Bible in his hand. Another believer, who was distributing tracts to the riders on the car, came to them and realized that they were brothers. That brother asked them, “To what church do you belong?” The three or four brothers looked at one another and wondered how to answer. Then one of the oldest among them told him, “We belong to the church to which you, Paul, Peter, Martin Luther, and all the saints belong.” After considering this, the brother with the tracts said, “This is wonderful!” To be sure, it is wonderful. To tell people that we belong to a certain kind of church is not glorious. We are nothing; we are only the general members of the one church. That is all.
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