Message Five

Taking Christ as Our Drink Offering

Scripture Reading: Phil. 2:17; Gen. 35:14; 2 Tim. 4:6

1. The drink offering typifies Christ as the One poured out as the real wine before God for His satisfaction— Exo. 29:40-41:
   1. The drink offering was in addition to the basic offerings, and it was poured out on one of the basic offerings— Num. 15:1-10; 28:7-10.
   2. The wine of the drink offering was poured out for God’s satisfaction; it was poured out for God to drink—Exo. 29:40-41:
      1. Christ poured out His being unto God—Isa. 53:12.
      2. Christ is the heavenly, spiritual wine poured out to God for His pleasure; He poured Himself out as wine to make God happy.
   3. The vine depicts the sacrificing Christ, the Christ who sacrificed everything of Himself, and out of His sacrifice He produced new wine to cheer God and man— Judg. 9:13:
      1. Christ is the wine-producer, sacrificing Himself to produce wine to cheer God and others.
      2. If we contact this Christ and experience His sacrificing life, He will energize us to live a life of sacrifice, producing wine to make others and the Lord happy—2 Cor. 1:24b.
2. The drink offering typifies not only Christ Himself but also the Christ who saturates us with Himself as heavenly wine until He and we become one to be poured out for God’s enjoyment and satisfaction and for God’s building—Matt. 9:17; Phil. 2:17; 2 Tim. 4:6:
   1. The drink offering is a type of Christ as the heavenly wine who is enjoyed by the offerer, filling him and causing him to become wine to God—Phil. 2:17:
      1. By experiencing Christ as the offerings, we become persons who are filled and saturated with Christ— Eph. 3:17; Gal. 4:19.
      2. The Christ whom we experience subjectively as the offerings becomes wine in us, causing us to be ecstatically happy and joyful—Matt. 9:17; 2 Cor. 5:13a.
      3. Eventually, we are saturated with Christ as the heavenly wine and are one with the wine and even become wine; in this way we are qualified to be a drink offering—Matt. 9:17; 2 Cor. 5:13a; Eph. 5:2; Phil. 2:17:
         1. The drink offering is our subjective experience of being made one with the Lord to such an extent that He becomes us.
         2. The more we experience Christ as the offerings, the more of a drink offering we become—Num. 15:1-10.
   2. Jacob poured out a drink offering on the pillar at Bethel, indicating that the drink offering is for God’s building—Gen. 35:14:
      1. The wine poured out at Bethel is not the direct wine from the winepress; it is the indirect wine from those who enjoy Christ as wine and who are saturated with Christ as wine.
      2. In Bethel, in God’s house, the church, we need to be poured out as a drink offering—2 Cor. 12:15a:
         1. In order to have the drink offering poured out on the pillar, we must have the genuine building—Eph. 2:22.
         2. Wherever there is the drink offering, there is also the pillar set up as the house of God.
3. The apostle Paul became a drink offering that was poured out upon the sacrifice and service of the saints’ faith—Phil. 2:17; 2 Tim. 4:6:
   1. The wine of the drink offering in Philippians 2:17 and 2 Timothy 4:6 is the Christ (wine) of Matthew 9:17 who had saturated Paul and had made him wine.
   2. Paul became a drink offering for the church; this indicates that the drink offering is not only for the worship of God but especially for God’s building.
   3. Based upon the principle that the drink offering required a basic offering, Paul regarded the sacrifice and service of the believers’ faith as the basic offering upon which he could pour out himself as a drink offering—Phil. 2:17:
      1. Faith here includes all that the believers have experienced and enjoyed of Christ; ultimately, it includes what the believers themselves are:
         1. The faith which can be offered to God as a sacrifice is a constitution of our experience and enjoyment of Christ.
         2. When we experience and enjoy Christ as the basic offerings, this experience and enjoyment becomes our faith.
      2. The basic offering upon which Paul could pour himself out as a drink offering was the faith of the believers in Philippi:
         1. It is the believers’ faith, not the believers themselves, which is a sacrifice.
         2. Faith, the word, and the Spirit are one—Rom. 10:17; 8:9:
            1. 1) Faith is both the issue of the word and the function of the Spirit.
            2. 2) Whenever there is genuine faith in us, the word is implied, and the Spirit is realized.
            3. 3) Faith is the result of the word and the Spirit mingled with our appreciation of Christ.
         3. With genuine faith, there are both the enjoyment of faith and the sacrifice of faith.
         4. Faith in Philippians 2:17 is the sum total of our experience, enjoyment, and gain of Christ:
            1. 1) Our experience, enjoyment, and gain of Christ become a sweet sacrifice offered to God.
            2. 2) Through the enjoyment of Christ, we experience Christ, gain Christ, and possess Christ, and our being is constituted of Christ; in this way our faith becomes a sacrifice which can be offered to God and upon which the drink offering can be poured.