Now that we have been saved by the Lord, we may only want to come to the meetings for our enjoyment. Do we think that this is enough? There are thousands of unbelievers living around us, and they need someone to preach the gospel to them. In the New Testament, the Lord first called us to Himself, and then He sent us to preach the gospel, to disciple the nations. Have we done this? Even in the Gospel of John, a book on Christ as our life and life supply, we are charged to bear fruit and to feed and shepherd the lambs. In chapter fifteen the Lord is the vine tree and we are the branches. Surely all the branches enjoy the life supply of the tree, but that is not the goal. The goal is for all the branches to bear fruit. We may say that we are enjoying the Lord, but where is our fruit? The enjoyment of Christ as grace to be our life issues in two things: fruit bearing and shepherding the flock. After we bear the fruit, this fruit becomes a flock of lambs for us to shepherd. We have to shepherd the flock and feed the lambs one by one. The Gospel of John is a book of enjoyment, but that enjoyment issues in something. This issue becomes the very responsibility upon our shoulders. We may like to hear about the enjoyment of Christ but not about our responsibility or duty. There is no such thing, however, as enjoyment without responsibility. If we think this, we are self-deceived.
According to the Lord’s word in John 15, if we branches of the vine do not bear fruit, we will be cut off from the enjoyment of the riches of the vine (vv. 2, 6). To be cut off is not to perish but to lose the rich life juice of the vine for our enjoyment. We may say that we are enjoying Christ when actually we may be cut off from this enjoyment. We may have the concept that the Lord would never ask us to do such a hard thing as to go out to visit people for preaching the gospel, but the New Testament shows that we have to be prepared to be persecuted and even martyred for the preaching of the gospel. After Pentecost a number of saints in Jerusalem were martyred (Acts 7:54-60; 12:1-2). Who would prepare himself for persecution? We all like to take the easy way, but the easy way is not the successful way. To have a successful class, the teacher must bear the burden. An executive of a corporation must bear the responsibility. It is the same with us Christians. Christians should be the top class of people among the human race. As such a people, we surely have to bear some responsibility.
First, the New Testament charges us to preach the gospel; then it charges us to feed the lambs. In John 21:15-17 the Lord asked Peter three times if he loved Him. When Peter told the Lord that he did love Him, the Lord told Peter to feed His lambs and sheep and to shepherd His sheep. Then in verses 18 and 19, the Lord told Peter, “When you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go. Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, Follow Me!” The Lord said this to Peter to prepare him to be martyred, to follow Him to death. This is our fate, our destiny, which brings us into the kingdom.
I feel that we are blessed that the Lord would speak this word to us. We are under the Lord’s blessing because He has shown us not only the truth of His present recovery but also the way to practice it. None of us should be afraid of even the highest requirement. The higher the requirement of God is, the richer His supply is. In the Bible there are many charges and warnings, but there is also God’s gracious supply. This supply is God Himself in His Trinity becoming everything to us to meet our every need. The more we get ourselves exercised for His purpose, the more we participate in Him. If we go out to visit people for the preaching of the gospel, outwardly we are doing something difficult; but in going out to visit people for the gospel, we will participate in the Triune God much more than we ever did before. He will become our rich enjoyment. In Acts 5 when Peter and the apostles were insulted and beaten by the Jewish Sanhedrin, they were rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer on behalf of the Lord (vv. 40-41). They felt that it was a glory to suffer for the Lord and His gospel. The more they suffered, the more joy they had.
The Triune God is real, and He is within us. He is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit to be everything to us, but we need to be exercised. We need to rise up to bear some responsibility. If all the saints in the United States rise up in this way, we will be prevailing, living, and a bright testimony. This surely will influence others, and all the Christians in all of the United States and even on the whole earth will see something. The local churches will really be the golden lampstands shining in the darkness. We may be the lampstands, but where is the shining? We could be the lampstands without the light. If we all take the biblical way, every local church will be a shining lampstand. People will receive the light, and they will walk in the light of the local churches.
To take the biblical way, we need to begin by going out to visit people to bring them into Christ. Then we need to take care of them in the home meetings and group them together for group meetings. Along with this we can bring them to the church meetings. We may say that this is too hard and burdensome for us. This is why we need to get ourselves revived to take this way. To get ourselves revived means that we have to enter into the real and practical enjoyment of Christ. Whether we are enjoying Christ is not up to our supposition. If we are really enjoying Christ, we will bear fruit. If a branch of a vine is really enjoying the tree’s juice, it will bear fruit. If we have really borne the fruit, this is a strong sign that we have been enjoying the vine. If we are not bearing fruit, this indicates that we are not enjoying Him. The issue of our enjoyment of Christ is fruit bearing.
We must get ourselves revived by going to the Lord to pray. We need to confess our shortcomings, mistakes, sinfulness, and uncleanness from our natural life, the self, the flesh, and the old man. When we confess thoroughly, the Lord will be within us as our enjoyment, and we will be revived. We will begin to live a revived life, a daily victorious and overcoming life. We will walk in fellowship with Him and spontaneously have something of Him to tell others. Through such a revival, we will be on the right track. We will go out to visit people organically. Someone within us will burden us to go out. If we do not get one saved this month, we will expect to get one the next month.
Actually, it is not that hard. We only need to bear two remaining fruit per year. In John 15:16 the Lord said that He appointed us to go forth and bear fruit and that our fruit should remain. To bear fruit is the first step. This is to preach the gospel to get people saved. The second step is to have home meetings with them to keep them as remaining fruit. To bear two remaining fruit each year is not too much of a burden. In order to have two remaining fruit, though, we need to save about five or six. Even the orchard farmers would tell us that not all of their fruit remains. During the whole year, we can get six saved and bear two of them as remaining fruit.
As long as we cooperate with the Lord to give Him two days a week, three hours each day, for laboring in the biblical way, we will certainly bear the fruit. When we think about this, it may seem hard, but when we begin to labor, we will see that it is not. It seems that knocking on doors for the preaching of the gospel is difficult and a suffering, but once we get into it, it becomes an enjoyment. For a mother to deliver a child is a suffering, but after the delivery she is joyful and happy. Before I begin to write the outlines for the Life-study of the books of the Bible, I always consider it a very difficult task, but when I get into it, I enjoy it. The more I do, the more I want to do. When we get into the labor with the Lord, the labor becomes a joy to us. If we respond to His requirements, His supply surely follows. If we get ourselves exercised by His requirements, we will be happy and ready to receive His supply. The supply comes to us because of our exercise. This is the glad tidings.
When the trainees are being tested in the summer and winter trainings, I frequently tell them to come to the altar. If we do not get on the altar, it remains an altar in our sight, but once we get on the altar, it becomes a dining table. We are so happy to labor in and with the Lord because this labor becomes our enjoyment. We need to get ourselves exercised by His requirements. Because He requires us to do something, we have no choice, but when we do it, it becomes a dining table, a real enjoyment, a real joy.