In the previous chapter we saw the way to practice the Lord’s present recovery. The first step in practicing the Lord’s present recovery is to get sinners saved for the Lord. Following this we need to have home meetings with the newly baptized ones, and then we need to group them together to teach them, to perfect them, to equip them, to furnish them, so that they can do the same work that the gifted persons do to build up the Body of Christ.
According to the traditional way of thinking, preaching the gospel is only for certain ones who have the profession of being a preacher, but in the New Testament it is altogether different. The New Testament reveals that each member of the Body of Christ should bear the burden to gain sinners for the Lord. In John 15 the Lord Jesus told us that He is the vine and we are the branches. Bearing fruit is not a particular job for only some branches. All the branches of the vine must bear fruit. In order to bear remaining fruit, we have to go back to the newly baptized ones to meet with them in their homes. These home meetings are for cherishing and nourishing them. Through the home meetings, the new ones will be raised up and established.
The new ones also have to be grouped together so that they can have a life in which they live together with other Christians. In these group meetings, we have to teach them and perfect them in certain things. They may love the Lord and seek after the Lord, but they do not know how to bring people to salvation. We have to train them and perfect them, instructing them how to go out to preach the gospel by knocking on people’s doors. This is a kind of particular perfecting, not a general teaching. In Christianity people listen to general sermons and teachings for years, and they still do not know how to serve the Lord. We may give the saints much knowledge in a general way without any particular training or perfecting. In a big congregation, it is hard to train people in a conversational way. If I teach a group of ten or fifteen, we can all converse with one another. The particular perfecting can take place in the small groups. We have to instruct the new ones in a particular way in many things. This carries out eighty percent of the church life. We have to promote their preaching of the gospel, their going to have home meetings with others, and their learning to speak for the Lord.
On the day of Pentecost, three thousand were baptized in the same day. At that time, only the one hundred twenty, who had received the outpoured Spirit, were capable of taking care of these new ones. I believe that these three thousand new ones all met in their homes on the same day because Acts tells us that they met according to houses (2:46). This means that there was a meeting in all the homes of the saints. Among those three thousand, there were at least six hundred homes. Each home may have averaged five persons. I believe that the one hundred twenty took care of these approximately six hundred homes two by two, which means that they would have been divided into sixty teams. That would mean that each team would have had to take care of ten homes in one day. Peter’s preaching on the day of Pentecost took place early in the morning (Acts 2:15), so this could have given the one hundred twenty the time to take care of all these homes in one day.
The first example of the church life in Acts 2 shows that every member participated in the church life. Whenever we baptize some new ones, we need to go to their homes immediately to meet with them so that the Lord can have a way to cherish and nourish them. We should not think that only certain ones can function to take care of others. We all have to say, “Amen! Hallelujah! We all can do it!” When I speak or walk, every part of my body participates in my speaking or walking. The Body of Christ is the same. When the Body acts, all the members participate. This is the church life. Christianity has disabled the members of the Body of Christ, and we all have been subjected to this disabling. Actually, the Lord’s present recovery is to recover us. He wants to recover us both corporately and individually. The Lord desires that we be living, able, active, and moving members of His Body. To carry out the Lord’s present recovery, there is the need of endeavoring and desperation.