In this chapter we must see the increase of the church. The increase of the church is to impart Christ to others and make them a part of Christ. The branches of the Vine bear fruit by imparting the life of the Vine to others and making them a part of the Vine. If the branches of a vine do not bear fruit, there will be no increase of the vine. The fruit-bearing of the branches is the increase of the vine tree. So the increase of the church is by the fruit-bearing of all the members. All the members must bear fruit; otherwise, there will be no increase of the local church.
Today in Christianity, nearly everything is abnormal, even the preaching of the Gospel. Christianity today depends upon the giant preachers with huge Gospel campaigns, but this is not so in the Bible. In the Bible, especially in the Gospel of John, the real Gospel preaching is the fruit-bearing of every member. Here in Los Angeles, the church does not have any kind of Gospel campaign, yet every month there are a good number of new converts that come into the church life. It seems that apparently there is no preaching of the Gospel, yet new ones are continually brought in. It is just like the Tree of Life in the New Jerusalem: it bears new fruits every month. This is the proper preaching of the Gospel, and this is the increase of the church. It does not depend upon great preachers and large Gospel campaigns. The normal daily life of the members of the church is simply to bear fruit; then there is the increase of the church.
The proper way to preach the Gospel is to impart Christ into others as life. We should not trust in the great preachers; we have to trust in ourselves. Every member of the church is a branch to bear fruit. Consider the fruit tree. Every kind of fruit tree bears fruit at least once a year-this is a natural law. I do believe that as living members of the local church, we must bring at least one new convert a year to the Lord. Suppose a branch of the vine does not bear fruit year after year. What do they do with it? They prune it or cut it off. Every local church must encourage every member to bring at least one new convert to the Lord every year. Even to bring in ten or twelve a year is not too many, for that is simply like a cluster of grapes.
In the local church, we should be fruitful. Whenever we come to the church meeting, we must come with some new ones. Do not come to the meetings alone-that is not a glory; that is a shame! We need to come to the meetings with others for the increase of the local church.
Some of the young brothers here in Los Angeles are of Japanese origin and were recently saved. They were not saved by Gospel-preaching meetings, but through the daily contact of members of the church. This is the proper bearing of fruit.
In the Gospel preaching, there are some wrong concepts that I must point out to you. In some of the denominational churches there is much activity in the outreach of the Gospel. This is good, but the problem is that there is too much human effort and struggle. This is wrong, but this does not mean that we should retire from fruit-bearing and not bear fruit. We should not be old in bearing fruit; we should always be renewed. There is no retirement in the spiritual life.
Another kind of concept in Christianity is that we must wait and pray for a great revival-then the Lord will send a giant speaker, and we will come together to have a Gospel campaign. This is abnormal. In the last chapter I mentioned that we should not trust much in the teachers and ministers for the building up of the church. This does not work well. Now I say that we must not depend much on a large campaign for the Gospel. This also is not normal.
There is a third concept-at the other extreme-which is also wrong. Some say, “Look at those people! All their Gospel campaigns are just in the energy of the flesh!” Of course, we must realize that all our Gospel preaching must be the overflow of the inner life. But those who criticize in this way have been criticizing others for years, yet they themselves have not brought in any new ones. It seems that there is no overflow of life with them. So they have gone to the other extreme.
Home | First | Prev | Next