One of the principles of how to have proper meetings for the church life is that we must help people learn to enjoy Christ. Without the enjoyment of Christ, it is difficult to have meetings which are profitable for the church life. What we have, what we are, and what we can do, apart from the enjoyment of Christ, are altogether useless. We should not use anything we have, anything we are, or anything we can do to benefit the church meetings. We must abandon all of this because it is altogether unprofitable for the church meeting.
The only thing worthwhile for the church meeting is Christ Himself, the Christ who has passed through all the processes to become the completed Christ. We must learn to enjoy Him, minister Him, and help others to enjoy Him. Then whenever we come together, we come with something of the Christ we have experienced in our daily life. Only Christ in our experience becoming our enjoyment avails for the Christian meetings.
In God’s eternal economy the completed Christ is the center, the factor, for us to have Christian meetings for the church life. In this chapter we must go on to see some of the details of Christian meetings. First, we have to help the new ones in the home meetings realize that Christian meetings are a gathering into the name of the Lord for the enjoyment of His presence (Matt. 18:20). We are not gathered into an organization, a teaching, or a practice. We are gathered into the name of the Lord Jesus. The name of the Lord always denotes His person. A name denotes a real and practical person, and the person of the Lord Jesus is the Spirit. Jesus Christ today is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Second Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit.”
We must teach and lead all the new ones into the realization that they need to call on the name of the Lord whenever they come to a meeting. The more times they call on the name of the Lord Jesus the better. Neither we nor the new ones should come to the meeting silently, dumbly, without opening our mouths to call on the name of the Lord. Calling, “Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus,” will bring life into the meeting and make the meeting atmosphere living, high, and rich. To some extent, we have to train the new believers to call on the Lord’s name, saying, “Lord Jesus!” First Corinthians 12:3 says, “No one can say, Lord Jesus, except in the Holy Spirit.” This indicates that when we say with a proper spirit, “Lord Jesus,” we are in the Holy Spirit. Hence, to call on the Lord Jesus is the way to participate in, to enjoy, and to experience the Holy Spirit.
We must link Matthew 18:20 and 1 Corinthians 12:3 together. First, to meet together is to be gathered into the person of the Lord Jesus, and to be gathered into His person means to be gathered into the Spirit. Second, whenever we come together, regardless of how large or small the gathering is, we must practice to call on the name of the Lord that we may get into the Spirit. When we get into the Spirit, we are in the person of the Lord Jesus. When we are in the person of the Lord Jesus, we are in the reality of the name of the Lord Jesus. If we practice setting up home meetings with this realization, we must first take the lead to call on the name of the Lord for the new believers to follow. If they would not follow, then we must take the lead to call and ask them to follow our example. We should call on the name of the Lord and encourage them to follow our calling on the name. Gradually, they will get into the practice. We must tell them that it is not a small thing to have this practice, because when they call on the name of the Lord, they get into the Spirit, who is the very person of the Lord Jesus.
Matthew 18:20 in the King James Version of the New Testament along with other versions says that two or three are “gathered together in My name.” Actually, the preposition “in” is “into” in Greek. We are gathered into the name of the Lord. Before the meeting, we may be occupied with many things. The sisters may be occupied with their children, home affairs, and many anxieties. Thus, when the meeting comes, the Lord Jesus gathers us out of these preoccupations. We then turn our heart to the Lord and call upon the name of the Lord Jesus from deep within our spirit. As a result, we get into the name, the person, the Spirit, of the Lord. In such a Spirit, under such a condition, we have a meeting. We must practice calling on the Lord’s name until we are rescued and pulled out of all of our preoccupations.
We should not wait until we enter into the meeting place to call on the Lord Jesus. Before entering the meeting place, whenever we have the thought to go to the meeting, we should begin to call, “O Lord Jesus.” While we are driving to the place of meeting, we should start calling, “O Lord Jesus,” the earlier the better. When we call on the name, we touch the Lord’s person, and His person is the Spirit. Therefore, as we are calling, we are in the Spirit already, even though we have not yet entered the meeting place.
We come together into the reality of the Lord’s presence, which is the Spirit. The Spirit is the Lord’s person and the Lord’s presence. Following the mention of two or three being gathered into the Lord’s name in Matthew 18:20, the Lord says, “...there I am in their midst.” Thus, we enjoy the presence of the Lord.
We should not go to the meetings silently according to our old custom, habit, or practice. We must forget our old practice. In setting up and holding the meetings with the new believers, we must practice calling on the name of the Lord. First, in our homes, we should start to call on the Lord’s name before we go to the meetings. Then on our way to the meeting, we should continue calling on His name. Arriving at the meeting place, we will be fully in the Spirit; then we can take the initiative to call, and the new believers will take us as their example. They will follow and imitate us. Hence, all the new believers will be the callers. When we come together by calling upon the name of the Lord, we are in a meeting that is a genuine Christian gathering.