God’s economy consummating in the New Jerusalem is the vision that the Lord has shown us in His Word, and it is also what we have been speaking throughout all these many years. We may say that our speaking reached the peak of this vision in the Chinese New Year’s conference last year, and it cannot go any higher because Revelation does not have chapter twenty-three, nor is there another book after Revelation. Revelation 22 says that nothing outside the book should be added, nor should anything inside be taken away (vv. 18-19); the revelation of God has been completed. I really appreciate that you brothers have come here at this time to have fellowship with me, and I also feel that I should speak truthfully to you. My concern is whether or not the elders and co-workers among us have carefully studied all the published messages that were mentioned earlier.
It is not easy to be an elder. Actually, Paul was not satisfied with the elders in the churches at his time. The first skill of an elder is being apt to teach (1 Tim. 3:2). This is not a qualification but a skill. An elder should be apt to teach, but what does he teach? According to Paul’s word, he should teach what Paul teaches. Some of the things which Paul teaches in his Epistles are shallow and others are deep, but they all concern God’s economy. In Ephesians chapter one he mentions the economy of God (v. 10), and again in chapter three he mentions the economy (v. 9). Today if you and I do not speak the economy of God and if we do not reach the peak of the economy of God, how can God achieve His purpose and accomplish His economy? Unless the work which you and I are doing is a part of the New Jerusalem, the New Jerusalem cannot be produced.
Dear brothers and sisters, you all are elders and co-workers, but unless you thoroughly get into all these points of the economy of God, your teaching is inadequate. If your teaching is inadequate, your shepherding will also be lacking. According to 1 Timothy 3, the first skill of an elder is to teach, and according to 1 Peter 5, it is to shepherd (v. 2). Shepherding altogether depends on teaching. If you cannot teach, you cannot shepherd. Then, what do you teach? You teach the teaching of the apostles (Acts 2:42). When you shepherd, spontaneously you shepherd by the apostles’ teaching that you teach. For example, a couple in the church may be in discord. As an elder, how do you shepherd them? Many elders would help them according to human feelings and speak to them some words of exhortation and encouragement. This is not enough. You must release some messages concerning Christ and the church in the ordinary church life. When this couple is having a problem, you should shepherd them according to the teaching of husbands and wives as symbols of Christ and the church.
You can also shepherd this couple according to the truth concerning the New Jerusalem. You may say, “Whether you are a brother or a sister, you are a constituent of the Body of Christ, and the consummation of the Body of Christ is the New Jerusalem. One of the main materials of the New Jerusalem is transformed stone; there is no wood, clay, or bricks. Therefore, we need to be transformed by the Lord in our marriage life today. If you are not transformed in the age of grace today, you will be disciplined in the kingdom age; the Lord will use the thousand years to transform you. In any case, the Lord will cause you to be transformed; there is no way for you to escape. As an elder, I must speak frankly. We must all be transformed by the Lord; otherwise, the Body of Christ cannot be produced. If as a husband or wife you quarrel, how can you be in the Body of Christ? Every member of the Body of Christ has to be transformed. After God has regenerated us, He goes on to sanctify, renew, and transform us, and eventually conform us to His image. Today the Lord has arranged for us to live a marriage life in order to help us to be transformed.” You should shepherd in this way. This kind of shepherding is high, proper, and fitting.
Shepherding is not as easy as what people generally call “preaching.” That kind of preaching requires only eloquence. Some pastors in Christianity teach philosophy, but philosophy cannot transform the saints. Only the teaching of the apostles can transform the saints. The apostles’ teaching concerns the economy of God. It does not merely teach that God so loved the world that He sent His Son to be the Savior of the world to die on the cross for us that our sins might be forgiven and that we might be justified by faith. This is spiritual “elementary school.” Paul left Timothy in Ephesus to charge the dissenting ones not to teach different things but to teach God’s economy. This is the economy of God in faith (1 Tim. 1:4); we must speak it by faith, and the listeners must listen and receive by faith. In this way God can produce the result which He intends to have, the consummation of which is the New Jerusalem. According to this standard, probably a good number of elders and co-workers are disqualified. All the professions in the world have tests and the grading of service to compel people to advance. Medical doctors in the United States maintain high quality because they are regularly tested for competency. They have to read the latest reports and endeavor to advance. We also should endeavor to pursue advancement in our service to the Lord.
Thank the Lord, among us we not only have the apostles’ teaching but also the interpretation of the apostles’ teaching, all of which has been printed in our books. Therefore, you brothers need to read the books on your bookshelves. Perhaps the co-workers should be tested so that everyone will be urged to make progress. Because there was no testing in the past, everyone was loose. Only those who had to give messages regularly in the meetings were forced to read the books. After their speaking, within half a year, they probably forgot everything. Therefore, among us teaching and shepherding are a failure. Once we fail in teaching and shepherding, the whole church becomes desolate. May the Lord have mercy on us to make us aggressive in the matters of teaching and shepherding for the building up of the church.