Eventually in the Gospel of Matthew, He says, “I will build my church.” “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). What is the way to build the church? It is by Jesus getting into you and me. To build the church is not simply to bring people to the Lord, that they may obtain some kind of church membership. No, to build the church is to dispense Christ into people. Then, once Christ is in us, He will transform us from our natural being into something else. Old things will pass away, and all things will become new. We are transformed from our old being into something new. Then we are part of the New Man, the church. Whatever Jesus did and whatever He was called were for the purpose of dispensing Himself into a group of people that they might be transformed from their old natural being into something new to be the church.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is wonderful. He is the son of David, a king. And He is the son of Abraham, the first generation of the Hebrew race. He is also Emmanuel, God with us. And He is Jesus, Jehovah the Savior. In chapter one He is the son of David, the son of Abraham, Jesus, Emmanuel, Jehovah the Savior.
But in chapter two, we immediately see the negligence of religion and the persecution from politics towards this wonderful person. Religion did not pay attention, but politics came in to persecute. Jesus is such a wonderful person for the producing of the church, but if we really mean business with the Lord for His purpose, our destiny today will be the same. If He has come into us and we are one with Him, our experience will be the same as His.
The influence of religion and the power of politics constitute almost the whole of human society. If we mean business with the Lord for Him and for His church, religion will neglect us, and politics will persecute us, just as they did to the Nazarene. Then we will become Nazarenes. This is what happened to Jesus, even as a young child. “But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee: and he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene” (Matt. 2:22-23).
To be a Nazarene is to be a person under the negligence of religion and the persecution of politics. The religious will say that we are very little, and the political people will say that we are nothing. Praise the Lord! We are nothing, and we are nobody. This is what it means to be a Nazarene. The Nazarene life is for the church. The church is produced by a Man who is called a Nazarene.
This wonderful person is despised, opposed, and persecuted by man, but He is perfect in the eyes of God. In everything related to God, He is right. “And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15). Righteousness is simply to be right with God. Suppose you park your car in a no-parking zone. That is unrighteousness. We should realize that we have Jesus as our life, and Jesus is righteous in everything. If there is no righteousness, there is no church life. Suppose you give a dollar for a forty-five cent hamburger, and you are given three quarters in change. What shall you do? You may consider that you got a cheap hamburger. You may gain twenty cents, but if so, you lose Jesus’ life. Jesus is right in everything. If you are taking Him as your life, you will return the twenty cents. “For thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.”
Perhaps you are working in an office. Many office workers take the company’s paper, pencils, and erasers home for their own use. Of course, you may say that this means nothing. But if it means nothing, why don’t you buy some paper, pencils, and erasers and bring them to the office for the company to use? You would never do that. Jesus would never take anything away from the office. He is right in everything. It becomes Him to fulfill all righteousness.