I am thankful to the Lord that He has restored this fellowship on the vital groups. This has been frustrated by Satan for more than two years. In this message we want to see the purpose of the vital groups in their intrinsic significance. The purpose of the vital groups is to live two kinds of lives: the kingdom life and the church life. We must repent and admit that we have defects in these two kinds of lives. Even though we may have been in the recovery for years, we have not seen that the vital groups are for living the kingdom life and the church life.
The New Testament revelation is concerning these two lives. The center of the four Gospels is the kingdom. Matthew and John are the two books that take the lead to touch the truth of the kingdom. Matthew's main point is the kingdom of the heavens, and the main point touched by John is the kingdom of God. John, of course, is a Gospel of life, but life brings us into the kingdom of God. We are regenerated into the kingdom of God. If we are not born anew, we cannot see or enter into the kingdom of God (John 3:3, 5). In the Epistles, including Acts, the center is the church life.
When we practiced the church life in mainland China before 1949, we had only home meetings, not group meetings. This practice started in Shanghai and brought in much blessing. Then when the Lord brought us to Taiwan, we realized that just to have the home meetings was insufficient, so we began to have group meetings. The Lord's blessing on us was rich and abounding. Some in Korea in 1958 followed us to have this practice, but instead of using the word groups, they used the word cells. The body is built up by the cells. Our practice of the group meetings in Taiwan was a great factor of increase. Within four years, we increased from about three to five hundred as a beginning to fifty thousand. In the United States we adopted the practice of the groups, but the groups have entered into a dormant situation. After studying our situation, we realize that our groups are not vital.
The scriptural base for our teaching concerning the practice of the vital group meetings is in Matthew 18:15-22 and 2 Timothy 2:22. Matthew 18:15-22 teaches us how to have small groups in the kingdom life. Then 2 Timothy 2:22 teaches us how to have a church life in the degradation of the church.
We need to read and consider prayerfully the Lord's speaking in Matthew 18:15-22, which reveals how we can live the kingdom life. Verses 15 through 17 say, "Moreover if your brother sins against you, go, reprove him between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not hear you, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to hear the church also, let him be to you just like the Gentile and the tax collector." If this sinning one would not listen even to the church, what shall we do? The text says that we should let him be to us like the Gentile and the tax collector, that is, like an unsaved person who is outside the fellowship of the church.
Verse 18 then says, "Truly I say to you, Whatever you bind on the earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on the earth shall have been loosed in heaven." We have to see the connection between verses 17 and 18. Verse 17 is so low, saying that we should let the sinning one who will not listen to the church be to us like a Gentile and a tax collector. But verse 18 says that we should touch heaven by our binding and releasing prayer. This is the prayer of the vital group. Verse 19 says, "Again, truly I say to you that if two of you are in harmony on earth concerning any matter for which they ask, it will be done for them from My Father who is in the heavens." This is the practice of a vital group of two or three in harmony touching the very God in heaven. These are the two or three mentioned in verse 16: "But if he does not hear you, take with you one or two more...." These are the members of a vital group.
If a brother sins against us, we need to deal with him first in love. If we cannot get through, we should bring with us one or two more to contact him. If we still cannot get through, we should tell it to the church, and if the church cannot get through, then the sinner brother will lose the fellowship of the church. But this is not all. We have to then pray in the way of binding and releasing, and we have to pray in harmony. Whatever we pray, our Father in heaven will accomplish to gain that person. Verse 20 says, "For where there are two or three gathered into My name, there am I in their midst." This is the reality of the vital groups. These two or three are gathered into the Lord's name for His purpose, not into their names for their purposes.