For the organic building up of the Body of Christ we first need to beget others, to bear fruit (1 Cor. 4:15; John 15:16a). In John 15 the Lord likened Himself with all the members of His Body to a vine tree with its branches. We the believers are the branches of Christ, the vine tree. This tree is for reproducing and for increasing by its branches bearing fruit. The branches of the tree bearing fruit is not by the way of addition but by the way of growth. When the vine tree bears fruit, it bears clusters of grapes. That is the issue of the rich flow of life from within. The fruit is not something just attached or added but something begotten by the outflow of the life from within. The Lord said in John 15:16 that He chose us and appointed us to go forth and bear fruit. He has chosen us and He has appointed us to go forth. What does “go forth” mean? This simply means you have to go to reach people. We go forth to beget people so that they become our fruit. In 1 Corinthians 4:15 Paul said to the Corinthians, “For though you have ten thousand guides in Christ, yet not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.” Because Paul begot them through the gospel of Christ, he was their father, and they were the fruit of the vine tree brought forth by him.
We need to realize that the preaching of the gospel to save sinners is the dispensing of the very elements of Christ into them. To minister, to dispense, the riches of Christ into people is the real and actual preaching of the gospel. In Ephesians 3:8 Paul said that he preached the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel. The gospel Paul preached was the riches of Christ. He did not preach mere doctrine or theology. He preached Christ Himself as the Spirit of life. To minister Christ as life into others we must be very living. A withering, dying branch cannot bring forth any fruit because there is not much life within. To be the fruit-bearing branches of Christ, we must be living by the riches of Christ, which we will minister, impart, or dispense to others. Our preaching is to minister a living One, the life-giving Spirit, into others so that others may have the same life that we do. This is what it means to bear fruit. All the fruit which we bring forth will be attached to Christ, or grafted into Christ, organically.
To bear fruit is the initial step for the organic building up of the Body of Christ. Therefore, we all have to bear such a burden. We are branches of Christ, and as branches we all have the duty to bear fruit. The Lord told us clearly that if we do not bear fruit we will be cut off from the vine tree (John 15:2a, 6a). This does not mean that we will perish but that we will lose the rich enjoyment of Christ. Branches that have been cut off from the tree lose the riches of the tree as their enjoyment. This is quite serious.
In order to bear fruit, we must be living. It is difficult for branches to bear fruit if they are very old. It is easy for the new branches to bear fruit. In our recent past in the Lord’s recovery, we did not have much increase. This indicates that we had become old and that we were not so fresh or new. Regardless of how many years we have been Christians, we have to be renewed. We have to be new and fresh. The way to be new is to contact the Lord. If a brother who is only sixteen years old does not contact the Lord for a period of time, he will become old. Once we contact the Lord, we will become fresh and new. After we contact the Lord, it will be easy for us to reach people in our freshness and newness to bring forth fruit. I hope that this fellowship will help us to realize our need to bear fruit. We should not excuse ourselves by saying that we are too old because we have been Christians for many years. Regardless of how many years we have been in Christ, we still need to be rich, new, and fresh to bear fruit.
Now I would like to give some practical suggestions concerning how to preach the gospel. Throughout church history, many good saints preached the gospel by knocking on people’s doors. Knocking on doors is not the goal. Knocking on doors is for the preaching of the gospel. Before going out to preach the gospel, it is profitable to consider whom you should go to visit. You have to consider first your in-laws and relatives. You may have been in the Lord for many years, yet still there are people in your family who remain unbelieving. A principle is set up in Acts 1:8 where the Lord charged the disciples to evangelize first Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria, and then the remotest part of the earth. We have to start our preaching of the gospel from the center to those who are closest to us, that is, to our in-laws and relatives. We owe the gospel to them. First, we have to knock on their doors. Then we can consider our friends, our colleagues, our classmates, and our neighbors. Our friends who get saved also have their in-laws, relatives, friends, colleagues, classmates, and neighbors. In this way the gospel will be spread through personal contacts.