The apostles perfected the saints firstly by visiting the churches (Acts 15:36, 40-41). When Paul and Barnabas returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, they had not been invited (Acts 14:21-22). Later Paul desired to return to these churches again and he said to Barnabas, “Let us return now and visit the brothers throughout every city in which we announced the word of the Lord, and see how they are getting along” (15:36). Because Paul was burdened to perfect the saints in these churches, he returned to visit them.
In Paul’s talk with the elders in Ephesus in Acts 20, Paul said that he taught them “publicly and from house to house” (v. 20). To teach the saints publicly, no doubt, indicates that he taught them in a meeting. He also taught them from house to house. This phrase “from house to house” means according to houses. Paul spoke Christ to all the saints in their homes. He admonished the saints with tears even for as long as three years (v. 31). Our concept of an apostle may be that he is a good speaker who is eloquent, knowledgeable, and highly appraised and exalted. But here is an apostle in Acts 20 who visited the homes of the poor saints and admonished them with tears. An apostle should go to the saints’ homes, especially to the poor ones’ homes.
When I was with Brother Nee in Shanghai, I observed that he would not go to the homes of the rich saints. Many of these saints tried repeatedly to have Brother Nee in their homes, but he would not accept their invitations. However, whenever the poor saints invited him to their homes, he would immediately go. He told me directly and personally that it is a shame for us to respect the rich ones more than the poor ones. Dear saints, this is an apostle.
We need to read Acts 20 again to see what an apostle is and does. As Paul was on his way to Jerusalem, he stopped in Miletus and sent for the elders of Ephesus. He charged them, and he placed himself before them as an example. He told them that he labored to supply his needs and the needs of his co-workers (v. 34). In addition to all of his labor, he still visited the homes of the saints, from house to house. He did this to perfect the saints. He did not shrink from declaring to them anything that was profitable (v. 20), declaring to them all the counsel of God (v. 27). What a marvelous perfecting work the apostle Paul did!
Many may want to be an apostle, but who today is doing the kind of work that Paul did? I want to see all the saints perfected to be apostles. A little sister among us can be perfected to be an apostle sent by God to visit her relatives. We should go to visit others in order to bring Christ to them. As ones who are sent by God, we go to others with Christ. An apostle is such a sent one.
Paul went back again and again to every home of the saints, exhorting them and advising them with tears. An apostle should speak full of sympathy, with tears. Do you want to be an apostle? Then learn how to weep. In Acts 20:19, Paul said that he served the Lord as a slave with all humility and tears. Then in verse 31 he says that he did not cease admonishing each one of the saints with tears. An apostle tells the dear ones under his shepherding everything concerning God and His counsel with tears. He does not only speak publicly, but he also visits the homes of the saints.
In the Summer Training of 1987 in Anaheim, California, we went out to preach the gospel and baptized about three thousand seven hundred people. Later some told me that most of the ones we baptized were lower class people. When I heard this kind of talk, I was reminded of Paul’s word in 1 Corinthians 1 that there are not many wellborn among us (v. 26) and that God has chosen the lowborn of the world and the despised (v. 28). According to 1 Corinthians 1, the Lord has not chosen or called many wealthy, higher class people. Instead He has chosen and predestinated thousands and thousands of poor, lower class people. I was one of the lowborn of the world, but the Lord called me. I grew up in a poor family, not a rich family. In Luke 14 the Lord told us to go out into the roads and hedges (v. 23). The rich people, the high class people, are not in the hedges. The Lord Jesus was charging us to go to the lower class people in the hedges to compel them to enter into the kingdom of God. After they enter into the kingdom of God, we need to visit them again and again in their homes in order to perfect them.
The apostles perfected the saints by visiting them. In Acts 20 Paul sent for the elders in Ephesus to come to him, and he told them that he had stayed with them for three years, teaching the saints publicly and by visiting them from house to house. There is a different teaching being taught today, saying that once the apostles have established the churches and appointed the elders, they should keep their hands off the churches and the elders. This is a wind of teaching that distracts the saints from the truth in God’s word. Paul stayed in Ephesus for three years to touch many homes of the saints after the elders had already been established. This is a proper apostle. How could a mother who gave birth to some children, keep her hands off her children once they have been born, leaving them as orphans? It is a wrong and damaging teaching to say that the apostle should have nothing to do with the churches once they have been established and the elders have been appointed. If the apostles keep their hands off the churches and the elders, the saints cannot be perfected and the Body cannot be built up. Acts 20 reveals that the way to be an apostle is to stay with a church like Paul did. I regret that since I came to the United States over twenty-five years ago, I have never stayed in a place for a longer time to teach and to bring the elders into the proper eldership. My concern is that it might be that a number of the elders in the Lord’s recovery are taking the lead in the churches in a probing way. This is because they have not been fully perfected to be proper elders. I am looking to the Lord that He would give me the time to stay in a place the way Paul did for three years to perfect the elders and the saints.
I did this kind of perfecting work from 1940 to 1942 in Chefoo. At the end of 1942, a great revival broke forth in Chefoo as a result of my staying with the church there for this period of time. During that time I spoke to the saints publicly at the podium, and I visited them in their homes. I rode my bicycle to visit the homes of the saints, and I talked with them about their problems. During the day, I went to visit them, and in the evening I spoke to them publicly. I followed Paul’s example to teach them publicly and from house to house. One time the Lord led me to invite all of the approximately three hundred saints in Chefoo to eat with me over a period of time. At one time I would invite ten saints, and at another time twenty saints. I did this on the evenings when we did not have meetings. I hired a brother to cook the meals, and I used a room in the meeting hall to receive the dear saints so that we could eat together and fellowship together. Within a period of a few months, I contacted most of the saints in the church in Chefoo in this way. To invite the saints into your home is more effective than ten messages. Brother Eugene Gruhler Sr., a brother among us who went to the Lord in 1973, never spoke at the podium, but hundreds of saints testified that they received the help in his home. Brother Gruhler invited saint after saint into his home in order to shepherd them. In this sense, he was a very good apostle.