Ever since His ascension the Lord has been ministering in the heavens. For this ministry to be worked out on the earth, however, requires a correspondence to it on our side. Nearly twenty centuries have gone by, but not much has been fulfilled on earth. Thus, as this age draws to a close, there is an urgent need for us to correspond to the Lord’s ministry.
The verses above illustrate this correspondence on our side. The references in Acts all relate to a move in life for the spread of the gospel. During the time of the Acts, the disciples were moving on with the Lord in life. This was so in the case of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch; Ananias and Saul; and Peter and Cornelius. All three were moves in life that corresponded to the Lord’s ministry in the heavens.
The references in the Epistles, in contrast, illustrate the growth and function in life, rather than a move in life. What is revealed in Ephesians and Colossians is not a move for the gospel, but the growth and function of the Body. The one is to bring people to the Lord; the other, to build up the Body. For people to be brought to the Lord requires a move in life; for the Body to be built up, the growth and function in life is needed.
The move in life to bring people to the Lord is outward, but the growth in life for the building of the Body is inward. For both the outward and the inward aspects, we need to correspond to the Lord’s ministry in the heavens.
In Acts 8, 9, and 10 the Lord moved His disciples outwardly for the preaching of the gospel. He was ministering in the heavens to move some of His disciples. Suppose Philip at that time had been away loving the world, Ananias had fallen into sin, and Peter had gone back to Galilee to go fishing. Christ would then have been ministering in the heavens, but there would have been no response on earth. Praise the Lord, these three were ready to respond!
In response to the Lord’s heavenly ministry, Philip left Jerusalem for Gaza (Acts 8:26). While he was walking along in the desert, he was responding to the heavenly Christ. The Lord had one disciple there in the desert that He could move. When He said to Philip, “Go near, and join thyself to this chariot” (v. 29), Philip ran there and heard the eunuch reading Isaiah. Do you see how Philip was corresponding to the heavenly ministry? It was through this that the Ethiopian eunuch was brought to the Lord. This was the corresponding on Philip’s side to the move in life for the preaching of the gospel.
The situation in Acts 9 was similar. Ananias must have been praying, when a vision came to him from the heavens. The Lord spoke to him via heavenly television and directed him to Saul! Saul was also praying, when the heavenly television transmission came to him, and he saw Ananias coming! There was a marvelous triangle of Christ ministering in the heavens, with Ananias and Saul corresponding to it on earth, all aimed at bringing Saul to the Lord.
In Acts 10 a Roman centurion named Cornelius was praying, when an angel came and told him to send for Peter. Suppose Peter had been unavailable when the messengers came to him from Cornelius. If Peter had gone fishing, the messengers would have had to return empty-handed and disappointed! As it was, Peter, just before the men arrived, was also praying when the heavenly television transmission came to him! A vessel like a sheet descended from heaven, full of unclean animals. Peter was told, “Rise, kill and eat!” His reply was, “Not so, Lord!” This wonderful television program was repeated three times! While Peter was puzzling over what it meant, the messengers appeared at the gate, asking for him. He went with them, and Cornelius, his family, and probably the soldiers as well, were all brought to the Lord.
This is the proper gospel preaching. It is a move in life under the heavenly ministry of Christ. It is not a movement organized by a mission board. Christ as the Head exercised His headship to move His disciples here and there. They were on the alert, responding to His ministry from the heavens. I hope the preaching of the gospel in the recovery will be like this: a prevailing move in life, corresponding to the Lord’s heavenly ministry under His headship.
Let me give you an illustration from my experience regarding this matter.
In July 1932 I had just come back home from my work at the office when a brother came. Actually, he was looking for someone else, but that other brother was away. Since it was still early in the evening, I suggested that the two of us go to the beach. While we were on the way, he raised up some spiritual questions. I said it would be good to sit on the beach and talk over these matters. This we did, conversing from about seven to eleven. We talked about baptism by immersion. (Our denomination practiced sprinkling.)
As soon as we finished our conversation, he said to me, “You are the right person to baptize me. I am the right person to be baptized. You must baptize me tonight!”
I was just a young man, about twenty-seven. I was not a pastor, nor an elder, nor even a deacon. I shrank back. “No, no, no!” I said. “I cannot. I am too young. I am not a pastor, or elder, or deacon. No!”
He rebuked me. “You just preach, but you won’t practice. You have been telling me who is the right person to baptize, where is the right place, and what is the right time. I have been considering: here is the right place (the sea is in front of us, full of water), this is the right time (a summer evening), I am the right person to be baptized, and you are the right person to do the baptizing. How can you refuse?”
I was subdued. Even though we had not brought any change of clothing, we went into the water, and I baptized him. After that, we were both in the third heaven!
Two days later, on a Thursday, I was in the office and needed to record his name. I could not remember how it was spelled. Since one of my colleagues knew him quite well, I asked him how the name was spelled. He was curious that I should need to know the spelling, and asked me what had happened.
“You want to know what happened?” I replied. “The night before last I baptized him in the sea!”
He was astonished, but I was astonished also when he said, “You baptized him! Well, I would like you to baptize me too tonight!”
Because there was another colleague who had also been brought to the Lord, I replied, “Let me talk to So-and-so first.” When I talked to him, he was happy to join us. After office hours, the three of us went to the beach, along with the brother whom I had baptized earlier. This one I asked to do the baptizing, but he refused. It bothered me: why was I baptizing people, as though I were a pastor? Nonetheless, I baptized the two new ones.
Afterwards, we were rejoicing to the uttermost! We wandered along the streets, talking about the Lord’s grace. We made so much noise that a man behind us pursued after us and then asked, “Are you Witness Lee?”
“Yes,” I replied. “Why?”
He told us he had just come from a prayer meeting of a mission church, where they were complaining that I had baptized one of their candidates; they said I was neither an elder nor a deacon; how then could I baptize people? Then he added, “When I heard them talking, I decided I would like to get in touch with you. I never dreamed I would find you like this. When will you have the next meeting?”
By the Lord’s Day, there were eleven of us. After one week, we began to have the Lord’s table. The Lord exercised His headship to bring people in. Though our number was small, we were corresponding to the heavenly Christ. Since those days, much has been accomplished, not by organization, but by His ministering in the heavens and some of His disciples corresponding on earth.