In addition to His sovereignty over the nations, Christ also exercises His headship. As Head over all things to the church, He works to gain His chosen vessels.
Let us consider just one vessel, Saul of Tarsus. If we read Acts 9, we can see how much Christ did to win Saul. He Himself came purposely to gain him. He had even more to say to him through Ananias (vv. 10-17). Though His intention in Acts 9 was to capture Saul, His words to Ananias were more detailed. Notice how busy the Lord was, just to gain one vessel. He appeared to Saul as he traveled to Damascus. Then He gave Saul a vision that Ananias would come and restore his sight. Then He went to Ananias in a vision and conversed with him about going to see Saul, who, He said, “is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake” (Acts 9:15-16).
Why did the Lord spend so much effort for just one person? The purpose of Saul’s being gained was the building up of the Body of Christ. There was the need of such a vessel. Yes, there was Peter, and James, and John. But they were not sufficient. The Lord still had need of one like Saul. Thus He Himself stepped in to win this one vessel.
Do not take your being saved as a small thing. It was accomplished because the Lord Jesus exercised His rulership. He arranged that you should be born in the country in which you were born. Your place of birth was not accidental, but under His administration. You were born in the right country, the right town, the right family, and at the right time He brought you to Himself. You may have been in Switzerland, or Germany, or France, or Spain, or Denmark, or Norway, or England. One day He arranged for you to be at a certain spot, and you repented, believed, and were saved. If you had been in Moscow, the opportunity to be saved and now to be meeting here, might not have come to you. It was under the King’s rulership that you got saved!
Do you think that the Lord has finished His work with you? No! By His rulership you were saved. Now His headship comes in. Consider how it is that you are attending these meetings here. You have come from all over Europe; some have even followed me from the United States. What has brought you? There is no entertainment, no beautiful music; only two-and-a-half-hour meetings with a Chinese speaking! To an outsider what is attracting you is incomprehensible. Yet some of you would have wept if you had not been able to come! How do you account for this? It is that you are now under Christ’s headship, which is not only over you like His rulership, but within you. He is the Head over all things to the church (Eph. 1:22). Your coming together here is the Lord’s doing.
The dear Lord is working. He is not merely sitting in the heavens. When Stephen was stoned to death, Jesus was standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:55-56), watching over and caring for His members. To persecute a believer was to persecute Him. He said to Saul, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?...I am Jesus whom thou persecutest” (Acts 9:4-5). Stephen was part of Him. So was Peter. Every member, every believer in Him, is part of Him. He is caring for them all. He is working in each one, that they might all be useful. He is making them apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers, that they might be equipped to perfect the saints, so that the Body might be built up.
Here in Europe is a good example of how the Lord is working to build up His Body. Less than ten years ago, one brother came without backing from any mission board. The Lord’s recovery came to Europe with no organization. Yet the Lord has moved, and the recovery has spread to many European countries. Still today there is no organization, yet the work goes forward. One young man came, with no theological degree and not much experience. He came with only the ascended Christ! This heavenly Christ was caring for this little member of His Body ever since 1960, when he attended a young people’s conference in the Philippines. When he came to Germany in 1971, it was under this heavenly ministry.
You are all under this dear Christ’s heavenly ministry. The day will come when you will be sent out, not by any man, but by the ascended Head! Some of you will go to Austria, some to Greece, and some to Israel with the heavenly ministry of the ascended Christ! Christ’s working is not slow. The recovery has been in the Western world only seventeen years. Yet it has spread to North, Central, and South America; to Africa; to Europe; and to Australasia. In the Far East there are churches in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. Hundreds of churches have been raised up without any organization. Whose doing is this? It is the work of the ascended Christ!
We in ourselves cannot build the church. Under His heavenly ministry, however, we can be equipped to be useful members in His Body. The Body itself is built up directly from the supply of the Head. “Wherefore He says, having ascended to the height, He led captive those taken captive and gave gifts to men...And He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ” (Eph. 4:8, 11-12). When Christ ascended to the heavens, He gave gifts—apostles, prophets, evangelists, and teachers and shepherds. These gifts perfect the saints, so that in every local church the members are edified, equipped, and qualified to function.
As every part of the Body functions, we “grow up into Him in all things, Who is the Head, Christ, out from Whom all the Body, fitted and knit together through every joint of the supply, according to the operation in measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love” (Eph. 4:15-16). All the members grow into the Head. Then out from the Head the supply will come that the Body may be built up. This is the way the local churches are built up by the supply of the Head.
The Head is busy ministering. While we are meeting here, receiving what is ministered out of Him, He is ministering there, taking care of all the members of the churches. The Lord’s recovery is not just another Christian work. It is a reflection of His ministry in the heavens! It corresponds to what the ascended Christ is doing there. We are cooperating and coordinating with the heavenly ministry of the ascended Christ!
His ministry, as we have seen, is twofold. On the one hand, He is administering the whole world as Ruler of the kings of the earth in order that His gospel may be spread and God’s chosen people be gathered together. On the other hand, as the Head of the Body, He is ministering to edify, equip, and qualify His members, so that they in turn may perfect others. Then He will send out some to new places to spread the recovery. Hallelujah for this heavenly ministry!