The New Testament reveals to us that Christ has taken two major steps. The first was His incarnation, which opened the way for Him to fulfill His earthly ministry. He finished His earthly ministry when He accomplished redemption on the cross. The second step was His resurrection and ascension, at which time He began His heavenly ministry. By these two ministries, His earthy and His heavenly, Christ has accomplished His divine commission. To see His earthly ministry is simple, but His heavenly ministry is hidden. Nonetheless, without it Christ cannot fulfill God’s eternal purpose, which is to have the church as Christ’s Body.
The accomplishment of redemption brought fallen mankind back to God. Once this earthly ministry was completed, however, Christ still needed to build up His Body and produce the church in order for God’s purpose to be realized. This heavenly ministry, which is far greater and more significant than His earthly, is unfolded to us in the writings of Paul.
In Colossians 1:25 Paul tells us that his ministry was to complete the word of God. If the New Testament lacked the fourteen Epistles of Paul, the divine revelation would not be complete. From his writings, and only in his writings, do we learn:
(1)Christ lives in us. He must be our life, and we must be His living.
(2)Christ is all-inclusive. He is the embodiment and mystery of God, the reality of every positive thing, our life, and the constituent of the new man.
(3)Christ is the Head and the church is His Body.
No other books in the Bible tell us that the church is the Body of Christ; that this Body is the center of God’s eternal purpose; and that God’s purpose is not only to redeem His fallen people but also to regenerate them and make them the Body of Christ to express Christ. This revelation granted to Paul brought to completion the word of God.
After the time of Paul, whose writings were finished about A.D. 66, differing teachings crept in to damage the church. In the quarter century after the death of Paul, Satan insidiously brought in false teachings regarding both the Person of Christ and the church. Heresies came in, claiming that Christ was not God, was not the Son of God, and even that He did not come in the flesh.
To counter these heresies, the Apostle John around A.D. 90 began writing his books. One was a Gospel, three were Epistles, and the last was Revelation. As we study these writings, we shall see that John was mending what was damaged. Paul completed the revelation in the Bible, but before too long it was damaged. Thus, after the completing ministry, there needed to be a mending ministry. With these two ministries the Bible is concluded. Notice that with John’s writings the Gospels are concluded; the Gospel of John was the last to be written. Then his three Epistles are the conclusion of the Epistles. Finally his Revelation brings to an end the New Testament and even the whole Bible.
Without the ministries of Paul and John then, the Bible has no conclusion. Their main goal, furthermore, is to reveal Christ’s heavenly ministry. In their writings we can see what Christ is now doing in the heavens. Yes, they sometimes refer to Christ’s earthly ministry, but primarily they are concerned with the carrying out of His heavenly ministry.
If my jacket gets torn, it needs to be mended. The part that is repaired will be even stronger than the original fabric. So it was with the writings of John. Paul wrote strongly of the church as the Body of Christ. John, however, was even stronger. He described the churches as lampstands which would eventually consummate in the New Jerusalem. How much stronger is the city than the Body!
With this message we shall begin a series on the mending ministry of John. Our first book will be the Gospel of John.
John’s Gospel, though it has twenty-one chapters, has only two main sections. Chapters one through twelve form one section; chapter thirteen stands in the middle, belonging to neither the first nor the second section; and then chapters fourteen through twenty-one comprise the second section.
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