THE VITAL GROUPS

MESSAGE FOURTEEN

NOURISHING PEOPLE WITH THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST IN HIS FULL MINISTRY IN THE THREE STAGES

(3)

OUTLINE

1. The accomplishments of Christ in the stage of His intensification from the degradation of the church to the consummation of the New Jerusalem:
   1. To intensify His organic salvation:
      1. For His ministry in the stage of His inclusion, Christ became the life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ, to carry out His organic salvation for the producing of the church and the building up of His Body to consummate the New Jerusalem.
      2. On the way of Christ's ministry in the stage of His inclusion, the church became degraded to frustrate the accomplishment of God's eternal economy.
      3. Hence, Christ as the one life-giving Spirit became the seven Spirits of God—Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6; 3:1:
         1. Not seven individual Spirits.
         2. But the one Spirit who is intensified sevenfold.
         3. To intensify the organic salvation of Christ sevenfold for the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate God's eternal goal—the New Jerusalem.
   2. To produce the overcomers:
      1. Through the degradation of the church nearly all the believers in Christ became defeated in their old man by Satan, sin, the world, and their flesh.
      2. In His seven epistles to the degraded churches, Christ calls the defeated believers to be His overcomers by Himself as the sevenfold intensified Spirit for their experience of His organic salvation in His sevenfold intensification.
   3. To consummate the New Jerusalem:
      1. According to the entire revelation of the New Testament, the unique goal of the Christian work should be the New Jerusalem, which is the ultimate goal of God's eternal economy.
      2. The degradation of the church is mainly due to the fact that nearly all the Christian workers are distracted to take many things other than the New Jerusalem as their goal.
      3. Hence, under the degradation of the church, to be an overcomer answering the Lord's call needs us to overcome not only the negative things but even more the positive things which replace the New Jerusalem as the goal.
      4. An overcomer's goal should be uniquely and ultimately the goal of God's eternal economy, that is, the New Jerusalem.