When we knock on doors, particularly to care for and perfect the home meetings, our greatest need is to give two things to others: first, ourselves and second, life and truth. In other words, it is to give ourselves and the Lord to others. The Lord is life and truth. The Lord Jesus came to earth not merely to do a work or merely to give some messages. He came to give Himself, to minister Himself, to man. To ordinary people today, their person is one matter and what they do is another. The Lord Jesus’ work and ministry were not like this. The Lord Himself and His ministry cannot be separated. The Lord Himself was His ministry, and what He ministered was Himself. He gave Himself to man.
In Matthew 20, when the Lord’s disciples were reasoning as to which of them was greatest, the Lord told them not to reason in that way; rather, they should learn to serve. “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many” (v. 28). The Lord gave His life for us. Life in the original Greek text means “soul,” or “self,” and refers to the complete person with a life and personality, including all that this person is. This “self” is the positive aspect of the person, not the negative self. God has His “self,” His person. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He too had His “self,” His soul and person. You and I also have our self, which is our soul. The Lord laid down His life for us. This life was His self, His psuche, the soul life. Therefore, the first key to perfecting a home meeting is to give ourselves to others.
The Lord said in John 10:11, “I am the good Shepherd; the good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” It is not that men forced Him to give His life but that He as the good Shepherd was willing to do it. He willingly laid down His life on the cross; He was willing to be “lifted up” on the cross (3:14). In the eyes of men it was the Jews who killed Him, while in the eyes of God it was God Himself who foreordained and arranged for Him to go to the cross. In the Lord Jesus’ own eyes, however, it was neither merely the Jews nor God alone, but it was He Himself who willingly went to the cross to pour out His life for us. For the Lord to lay down His life means that He gave, bestowed, and granted His life. He gave Himself to us on the cross.
In the New Testament the apostle Paul also mentioned a number of times that he was willing to forsake his life for the saints. To forsake one’s life is to give oneself to others. In 2 Corinthians 12:15 Paul said, “But I, I will most gladly spend and be utterly spent on behalf of your souls.” Paul was willing to spend everything for the believers in Corinth. He was willing to spend even himself, to give himself, to the Corinthians.
In Acts 20:24 Paul also said, “But I consider my life of no account.” Life here is the same word as in John 10:11, with the same meaning. Paul did not care for himself and had no regard for himself. He was for the ministry and commission of the Lord and was willing to give himself for that. The New Testament also mentions persons like Prisca and Aquila who risked their own necks (Rom. 16:3-4). According to the sense of the word in Greek, they risked their own lives, not caring about themselves. Paul’s co-worker Epaphroditus was the same way (Phil 2:30). Again, life in these verses literally means “soul.” To risk one’s life is to risk one’s person with his disposition, not caring about oneself and giving oneself to others. This is the pattern we should see and follow.
Being a person who serves the Lord full time, you have to let others feel that you truly give yourself entirely, not merely to do the work of door-knocking or merely to come to perfect home meetings, but to present yourself and to give yourself to them. Perhaps many people think that to forsake themselves is to become a martyr. To be sure, it is glorious if, as a result of receiving the Lord’s leading, you are martyred for the Lord. However, if you are only martyred for the Lord, exerting yourself to the uttermost and not caring whether you live or die, what benefit will this bring to the new way? If we all go to be martyrs for the Lord, will the Lord be happy? Certainly not. If all are martyrs, there will be no one to do the work that needs to be done and bear the responsibilities that must be borne. To be martyred for the Lord without a proper and appropriate reason is to commit suicide in disguise. Many countries have their “suicide squads,” yet for someone to risk his life inappropriately is to bring death upon himself. To do this has no meaning whatsoever.
When the Lord Jesus came to earth, He did not immediately give up His life to be martyred. Instead, He went step by step through the processes of life, being born, growing up, and so on. The Gospel of Luke shows us that His growing up was not ordinary but particular. He grew until He was thirty years of age, and during those thirty years He had many particular expressions. Philippians 2:7-8 says, “Becoming in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man.” This refers in part to His life as a carpenter in Nazareth before He began His ministry. He was found in fashion as a man. If we merely say that He was God becoming flesh, it is hard for people to understand what kind of flesh He was. However, through His thirty years of living on the earth He was seen as a man who was the same as everyone else. He slept, He ate, and He also wept. All His acts and deeds were those of a man. Therefore, men found Him in the likeness of men, and His life was full of meaning. When He reached thirty years of age, He began His ministry. His entire move was in His ministry, a genuine move of forsaking Himself.
At the beginning of John 7, the Jews were about to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. Jesus’ brothers in the flesh said to Him, “Depart from here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may behold Your works which You are doing; for no one does anything in secret and himself seeks to be known openly” (vv. 3-4). What they meant was that since Jesus had such great abilities, He should hurry to Jerusalem to show them off. However, the Lord said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready” (v. 6). This shows that even the Lord’s crucifixion was according to a timetable; He knew that He could not arrive one day earlier. Thus, He told His disciples that He could not at that time go to die; the time had not come. Rather, He had to die at the exact time the Messiah should be cut off in order to fulfill the prophecy in the Old Testament.
Daniel 9:24-26 speaks of seventy weeks; after sixty-two weeks, Messiah would be cut off. That was the time when the Lord Jesus would be crucified on the cross. The Lord’s crucifixion had a definite timetable. Those who know the Bible can calculate the time. According to history, from the decree for the rebuilding of Jerusalem to the time the Messiah would be cut off were first seven weeks and then sixty-two weeks, signifying four hundred eighty-three years. It was only when the four hundred eighty-third year had arrived that Christ could be crucified. The Lord Jesus Himself also knew that He needed to arrive at Jerusalem one day before the Passover because He is God’s Passover Lamb and had to be killed on that day. Therefore, He did not risk His life to die merely as a martyr. He needed to preserve Himself for that day, which was the day of the Passover when He was to be killed, which was also the year the Messiah was to be cut off.
The Bible has a very clear account of this prophecy. Not only is the year and time recorded clearly, but even the place was also very clearly recorded. We all know that Abraham offered Isaac on Mount Moriah, which is the place where the Lord Jesus was crucified. Golgotha is Calvary, which is the peak of Moriah. In the Old Testament Abraham offered his son Isaac on Mount Moriah, but God prepared a ram at that time to be Isaac’s substitute (Gen. 22:13). The ram is a type of Christ. This is a clear evidence of the place in which the Lord was to die. If the Lord Jesus were crucified in Galilee, that would be wrong; if He were crucified in Bethlehem, that also would be incorrect. Even to be crucified in Jerusalem would be wrong. The Lord must be crucified outside the city on Calvary, the peak of Mount Moriah, so that He could fulfill the prophecy in the Old Testament.
When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, He was crucified not merely at the time of His crucifixion. Rather, He began to live the life of crucifixion as soon as He commenced His ministry. He laid down His life daily. In other words, the Lord Jesus gave His life for us not only for a few hours on the cross; He began to give His life from the commencement of His ministry. He lived a life of laying down His life and did a work of forsaking His life. His entire living and work was to give His life. He gave Himself up and gave Himself entirely to us. Today we who go out to knock on doors also need to forsake ourselves as the Lord did. If we do not deny ourselves, we cannot knock on doors. Common people would prefer to sit on the couch at home, watch television, and rest when they are tired. This is a very carefree life. However, when we knock on doors, we need to see people face to face, and when we talk to them, we must observe their expressions. This requires us to deny ourselves.
When the Lord Jesus began His ministry, He also observed people’s expressions. Sometimes when people were not right or did not welcome Him, He would not work there but would go away. Often when something was not right, He turned away, acting not according to men’s will but according to God’s will. Although He was the sovereign One, sometimes He performed miracles, but sometimes He did not. No matter how people urged Him, He did not move right away. When people were hurried or anxious, He was not, but if He truly wanted to perform a miracle, no one could stop Him. When He calmed the wind and the sea, He only needed to rebuke them once; the wind stopped immediately, and the waves died down. In the Gospels we see Peter complaining to Him, “Teacher, does it not matter to You that we are perishing?” (Mark 4:38). Peter seemed to be saying to the Lord, “We follow You, yet we have come to an end here. We are perishing, but You are not taking care of us.” Very often in our experience of the Lord we think that we are perishing and that the Lord does not take care of us. We should know this: If the Lord does not seem to take care of us, we must then have the experience of forsaking ourselves. For example, when we go out door-knocking, we often like to pray, “O Lord, let us see nice faces. Let us meet sons of peace.” However, wonderfully, the Lord sometimes does not give us a son of peace for the whole day. When we knock on one door, out comes a “wolf.” When we knock on another one, the “wolf” howls at us, and when we knock on a third door, the “wolf” wants to eat us. At this juncture if we are not willing to deny ourselves, we will give up. However, if we begin to lay ourselves down, to deny ourselves, we will continue to knock on doors.
Men are changeable. We should never completely believe in their condition. They are like the weather in certain places which always changes. However, a man’s face changes quicker than the weather. It may be that today when we knock on doors, we will come across cold and unfriendly faces. If we knock on the same door again the day after tomorrow, the faces may look even worse, and if we knock on the door yet another day, the person there may use abusive language against us. However, if we can deny ourselves and continue with our door-knocking, on the fifth or sixth time the same one who spoke abusively will become a son of peace. Therefore, as we knock on doors, it is difficult to determine when a person will be saved. In our own experience, not all of us were sons of peace at first. We also may have looked cold and unfriendly to the persons who visited us. Eventually though, we were all saved and have become sons of peace. If we are willing to deny ourselves and knock on doors unceasingly and steadfastly, many “sons of Gehenna” will become “sons of peace.”