In all these cases of the Lord meeting with His disciples after His resurrection, He spoke to them. Every time in their meetings they had the Lord’s speaking, the Lord’s new speaking. Whenever we come together, we need the Lord’s speaking. This is nothing of a teaching coming from dead knowledge, dead doctrine, dead theology. The Lord’s speaking is something new, something which is not only constant, but instant and up-to-date. We need the Lord’s living, up-to-date and instant speaking. It is based upon the Lord’s breathing. If the Lord is free to breathe upon us, He is also free to speak to us. This kind of speaking today may be through you or through another. Sometimes it may be through a young brother, a new convert. We do not mean that the Lord’s speaking will necessarily come through a good speaker. Let us forget the term “speaker.” If we use this term, we must realize that every one of us is a speaker. Are you not a speaker? You speak all the day. Some of the sisters are excellent speakers in their homes. Sometimes people ask, “Who is the speaker in your meeting today?” What would you answer? You may say, “the Lord Jesus.” That would be right and good, but you should also be able to answer that all the attendants are speakers. If we have 501 attendants, we should have 501 speakers. If we have 501 attendants and only 499 speakers, we are wrong; we are short of two. I know that some will not say Amen to this, because they are afraid to be this kind of a speaker.
There is a great difference, obviously, between this kind of meeting and fallen Christianity. In the living church meetings, all the attendants are speakers. We all need to be a mouthpiece for the Lord Jesus. Today the Lord may speak through you, and tomorrow He may speak through others. We all must be ready for the Lord to speak something to His church through us. Read all the cases of these meetings in the Scriptures again. In every case the Lord spoke, and He spoke much.
The disciples were with the Lord for three and a half years before His resurrection, but they did not know Him well. They knew Him in the flesh, but they did not know Him in the Spirit. They were with Him, but they were ignorant of Him. It was not till after His resurrection that the Lord met with His disciples and purposely opened their understanding by opening the Scriptures. “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27). At that time there was only the Old Testament, including the books of the Law, the Psalms and the Prophets. The Lord Jesus opened up the entire Old Testament to point out to them who He is. He helped them to know Himself through the Scriptures (Luke 24:44-47).
Today we still need this. We still need to know Christ with an opened Bible. We need a spiritual understanding with the Scriptures opened in such a way that we see all the secrets behind the writings. So in our meetings we must look to the Lord that He would grant us this, that He would give us an opened Bible that we may see more things of Christ. We need Him to breathe upon us, but we still need the proper understanding of who He is. Christ opened the Bible and the understanding of the disciples that they may really know Him.
In the meetings that the Lord Jesus had with His disciples, they saw the resurrected Christ. Before the Lord’s crucifixion, they saw Christ in the flesh, they did not see Him as the resurrected One. But after His resurrection, every time they saw Him they saw Him in resurrection. Today in every meeting we need to see the Lord Jesus as the resurrected One—not just to understand Him, but to see Him.
Thomas was not in the first meeting with the Lord Jesus; he missed the opportunity of seeing the resurrected Christ with all the others. Then when Thomas came in the next meeting (John 20:24-29), the Lord Jesus showed Himself to Thomas in resurrection. Thomas not only understood that He was resurrected, but he saw Him, the resurrected Christ.
Moreover, in the last meeting the Lord had with His disciples, they saw Him as the ascended Christ (Acts 1:6-11). This is not a small matter. In all our meetings we need to see that the very Christ with whom we are meeting is the resurrected One and also the ascended One. And we are all identified with Him. He is resurrected and we are resurrected in Him. He is ascended, and we are ascended in Him. If we realize this, our meetings will not only be in resurrection, but also in ascension. The praising will burst forth. We will all say, “Hallelujah, we are in the heavens!”
If we read carefully the account of the Lord Jesus meeting with His disciples, we cannot find a hint that some of the disciples were sorrowful in the meeting. Before the Lord Jesus came to meet with them, perhaps some were sorrowful, but when they saw Him they were excited and glad (John 20:20). Tell me, if you were there that day on the Mount of Olives and saw the Lord Jesus ascending into the heavens, could you be still, could you be calm? This is the proper way for us to come together: whenever we meet, we need to see the One who is resurrected and ascended. Today we meet not with the Jesus who was in the flesh, but with the resurrected and ascended Christ.
In the Psalms we have the Songs of degrees (Psalms 120 to 134). When the people of Israel were ascending Mount Zion to be at the feast in the presence of the Lord, they sang the Songs of degrees. Today we need some new Songs of degrees, some new songs of coming up to the meetings. They should go something like this: “Oh, we are going to see the resurrected Christ, we are going to see the ascended Christ in our meeting!”
The disciples met with the resurrected and ascended Christ in their meetings. Is this not wonderful? Then what kind of Christ do we come to meet with in our meetings? Yes, the resurrected and ascended Christ! We are with Him in resurrection and we are with Him in ascension. Learn to meet Him in this new way. If we meet with such a One, all the problems, all the traditions, and all the religion will be under our feet. We will be in resurrection and ascension. The Lord Jesus is not just our Savior, He is the resurrected and ascended One. He said to Thomas, “Touch me and see what kind of Christ I am. Touch and see.”
How could Peter and the one hundred and twenty be so bold on the Day of Pentecost? Because they saw the resurrected and ascended Christ. After they saw Christ ascend into the heavens, they went back to their place, and regardless of what others thought of them, regardless of what others did to them, they did not care. They were so strengthened and released by such a vision. Do we need the teachings? Do we need the doctrines? There is a place for them, but above all we need to see the resurrected and ascended Christ.