In this chapter we want to fellowship further concerning the need of the present world, the divine truths that the Lord has shown us throughout the years, and the blessings we have been receiving of the Lord through these many years. Then we want to go on to see what our responsibility is.
In the six thousand years since man abandoned God, gave up God, and left God to take his own way, man has attempted to enjoy himself with culture, with politics, with religion, with philosophy, and with science by improving his education. All the educated people became very thoughtful, philosophical, and logical. In the past forty-one years since the end of World War II, nearly every nation has endeavored to educate its people. Thus, on this earth in any continent the people are thoughtful, philosophical, and logical. Many realize that mankind has tried culture, politics, religion, philosophy, science, plus education, and that none of these things has ever satisfied. Man realizes he needs something practical, but he does not know what his practical need is.
By the Lord’s mercy, we know that the practical need of mankind is the reality of the Triune God. Even many Christians are short of the divine revelation of the processed and consummated Triune God. By the Lord’s mercy, we have such a revelation. The Lord has given us a revelation to such an extent, nearly to the top standard. Our God, who is our need, is the processed Triune God. He is the very Triune God, who was embodied in the Son and who was consummated in the all-inclusive Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the Triune God for our portion, to be our life, our contents, and our everything. This is the very God who can meet the practical need of mankind. Not only does the unbelieving world need Him, but also all the Christians need Him. Thank the Lord that we have this divine truth.
In one message given in the 1985 winter training, I pointed out that the believers who are in the progressing stage of God’s full salvation, the stage of transformation, are enjoying the dispensing of the divine Trinity in the divine transformation for the divine conformation by living in the organism of the divine Trinity and participating in the dispensing of the divine Trinity. These words are a part of our heavenly vocabulary. Many people on this earth have never heard such things. We all should be excited that we are enjoying the dispensing of the divine Trinity in the divine transformation for the purpose of the divine conformation by living in the organism of the divine Trinity and participating in the dispensing of the divine Trinity. We are abiding in the divine grapevine, which is the organism of the divine Trinity. In this organism we participate in the dispensing of the divine Trinity. This indicates the high standard of the divine truths the Lord has shown us.
This particular message in the winter training covered John 14—16 plus chapter seventeen as the Lord’s concluding prayer to His preceding message. If you are going to understand this section, you have to know how to section the entire twenty-one chapters of the Gospel of John.
The Gospel of John basically comprises three sections. The first eleven chapters comprise the first section, which is on the matter of the Lord putting Himself out as a “sample,” that He as the divine life could meet the need of man’s every case. These eleven chapters contain nine cases. The first case was the case of Nicodemus (2:23—3:36), and the last one was the case of Lazarus (11:1-57). Nicodemus was an elderly, moral, experienced, and learned man in need of life’s regenerating, and Lazarus was a dead one in need of life’s resurrecting. In between these cases are seven other cases. The Lord as life met all the needs of all the cases.
The second section of John’s Gospel begins in chapter twelve and is concerning the Lord’s multiplication for His glorification. This section begins with those in a little house in Bethany welcoming Him, serving Him, and loving Him to the uttermost (12:1-11). Then the Jews welcomed Him, and even the Greeks were seeking after Him (12:12-21). Humanly speaking, this was a golden time for Jesus on this earth. He was warmly welcomed by everyone. At that time Andrew and Philip, thinking that this warm and wonderful welcome was glorious, came to tell Him that the Greeks wanted to see Him. The Lord responded to Andrew and Philip in this way: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (v. 24).” Andrew and Philip may have understood the people’s wonderful reception and welcome of Jesus as His being glorified. The Lord’s thought, however, was not one of being welcomed but of being sown into the ground to die that many grains, much fruit, would be brought forth. This was His glorification. In 12:28 the Lord said, “Father, glorify Your name.” There came then a voice out of heaven, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” Actually, the Lord’s multiplication is His glorification.
The section on the Lord’s multiplication for His glorification continues in chapter thirteen. Generally speaking, Christian readers consider chapter thirteen of John to be on foot-washing, which is related to the disciples’ loving one another. Actually, the footwashing was to point out the one who was going to betray the Lord and to speed this one up to go out to prepare the Lord’s betrayal for the Lord’s glorification. John 13:31 says, “Then when he [Judas] went out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him.” The Lord sent the betrayer to “sell” Him for thirty pieces of silver (Matt. 26:15), and He went to the place where Judas would bring His opposers to seize Him. After Judas left, the Lord told His disciples, “Now is the Son of Man glorified” (13:31). Then He continued in John 14—16 to give a message, and after this message, He prayed as a conclusion. John 17:1 says, “These things Jesus spoke, and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You.” After this prayer, He led His disciples to the garden of Gethsemane to get Himself ready for being betrayed. Remember that the section from chapter twelve through chapter seventeen of John is concerning the Lord’s multiplication for His glorification.
From chapter eighteen through chapter twenty-one is the third section of John. From chapter eighteen He was betrayed, judged, and crucified to accomplish redemption. Then in chapter twenty He was resurrected and that was the time of His multiplication. Therefore, He came back to His disciples, calling them “My brothers” (20:17). His brothers, who are His Body, the church, are His multiplication for His glorification.
Based upon this bird’s-eye view of the Gospel of John and specifically of the subject of John 12—17, we can see that there is a case in John 14, a case in John 15, and a case in John 16 illustrating the Lord’s glorification. The first case was the Father’s house (14:2), the second case was the grapevine (15:1), and the third case was the new child (16:21). The Father’s house with all the abodes, the grapevine with all the branches, and the new child with all His members are corporate items illustrating the real glorification of this wonderful Christ. God needs, in the universe, a dwelling place, the Father’s house; He needs a divine organism, the grapevine, to express Himself; and He needs a new man to work out His will. These three items consummate in the New Jerusalem. Eventually, the New Jerusalem will be the house of God, the eternal organism to express God, and the eternal new man to carry out God’s eternal purpose. This wonderful bird’s-eye view of John will help us to realize the marvelous extent to which the Lord has opened up the divine truths to us.