Although there is still much to cover concerning God’s building, we will conclude with this chapter. In doing so, we would like to mention several important points that serve as principles for us to keep in the practical building up of the church.
First, we would like to see how the building of God proceeds in the church age. In the previous chapters we saw the various conditions of the New Jerusalem in brief. This city, revealed at the very end of the New Testament, is the ultimate issue of all the building of God throughout the generations. The revelation of the New Testament is complete; it is a complete book. Hence, if we want to see the building of God in the church, we have to come to the New Testament.
In the New Testament the first time the building of the church is mentioned is in Matthew 16. There for the first time the Lord clearly said that He would build His church (v. 18). However, He spoke in a general way, without revealing the details of how He would build the church. It was not until the book of Acts that the Lord clearly and specifically spoke concerning the way to practice the building of the church. Here it indicates that in His building of the church, the Lord intends to build all His believers together locality by locality. When the believers in a locality are built up, they become the church in that locality. For instance, in the early days, as the believers in Jerusalem were built up, they became the church in Jerusalem. It was also the same in all the places in Judea, Galilee, and Samaria. Later in Antioch a group of believers were built up together to be the church in Antioch. Therefore, in Acts 9:31 we have a precious verse telling us that the churches in all the places throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace, being built up, and that going on in the fear of the Lord, they were multiplied. This shows us clearly that the Lord’s intention is to build up His church one locality after another.
Here I would like to point out a crucial matter. In Christianity people often talk about building the universal church. This concept is not so accurate. It is true that in the Bible there is a word saying that the Lord will build the church, but we cannot find any statements which refer to the building of the universal church. In the entire book of Acts we see that when the apostles were commissioned and sent by the Lord to go forth and work, what they did was to build the local churches. They built up the church in locality after locality. They were not building the universal church directly as most people think today.
Practically speaking, the universal church is very mysterious to us; we cannot touch it. In the early days the apostles built up the local churches. We cannot see them building the so-called universal church. They were building local churches in one locality after another. Only this kind of building is practical.
Furthermore, every one of the Epistles written by the apostles to the churches was written to the church in a particular locality. The Epistle to the Romans was written to the church in Rome. The Epistles to the Corinthians were written to the church in Corinth. Even the Epistle to the Ephesians, a book which seemingly speaks about the universal church, was written to the church in Ephesus. The Epistle to the Philippians was written to the church in Philippi. The Epistles to the Thessalonians were written to the church in Thessalonica. And even the final seven epistles in Revelation were written to seven local churches in Asia respectively.
Therefore, the divine revelation in the New Testament clearly reveals that today, in the church age before the manifestation of the New Jerusalem as the eternal habitation of God and man, God wants to build up the local churches, one by one in various localities. He wants each local church to be His house on a small scale in each locality and a miniature of the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem may be likened to a big hen, while the local churches in various places may be likened to small chickens. They may differ in size, yet they are the same in nature, principle, and content. The nature, principle, and content of the New Jerusalem are also the nature, principle, and content of the local churches.
This is the reason that we have been looking at the specific characteristics of the New Jerusalem. The condition of the New Jerusalem should be the condition of the builded churches in all the localities. Although the fullness of the time is not yet come, the ultimate plan of God is not yet accomplished, and the New Jerusalem is not yet fully manifested, God desires that in the church age there be churches in various localities that manifest the condition of the New Jerusalem. God’s desire is that in locality after locality the local churches will become miniatures of the house of God, so that He may have a resting place in which He can freely do His will and thereby express Himself. Please remember that this is what God intends to do in the church age. God’s intention today is to build all the believers in each locality together in His Son to be the local expression of the church in each locality.
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