Now we must go on to John 10:16. Here Jesus tells us about the one flock. “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one flock, and one shepherd.” The flock is a corporate matter. We are not individual sheep; we are a flock! So we must be flocked together. The real togetherness is the church. The church is the togetherness of the flock. As individual sheep we will be killed. We must be in the one flock, and this flock is the proper church life. Praise the Lord for one flock and one shepherd!
In John 12:24, the Lord tells us something more of the corporate Bride. “Verily, verily I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” The Lord was the one grain of wheat falling into the ground and dying that He might produce many grains. But these many grains are not individual. They are to be ground into fine flour to make one loaf. This one loaf is the church (1 Cor. 10:17). The church is one body, one loaf, coming out of the mass production of the one grain. Jesus fell into the earth and died, but in His resurrection we were all raised up as grains to be made into one loaf. Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as an individualistic standing. We must be in the one flock and the one loaf.
Then in John 15 we see the one vine tree with all the branches. “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). This is still the church, the corporate Bride. There are many branches, but there is only one tree. Do not think that you can be a separated branch. If so, you are withered, because you have been cut off from the vine tree. Praise Him that we are the many branches in the one vine tree! This is the proper church life.
We all must realize that everything is for the Body. The church is not simply a group of individual believers; it is the built up Body of Christ. This is why the Lord prays in John 17 that we all may be one. “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and has loved them, as thou has loved me” (John 17:21-23). The Lord Jesus prays in this prayer for the oneness, and this oneness is the church life. All Christians should be one! This is why we are against any kind of division. We should not be divided by any kind of doctrines or ordinances. If you speak in tongues and I don’t, we still should be one. If you are immersed and someone else is not, you must all still be one. Regardless of what we like, we must be one!
To have the oneness and to be built up into one body is far from the concept and practice of today’s Christianity. Everyone forms their own group according to their taste. But as long as we all believe in the Lord Jesus and have been regenerated, we are one! Believe me, the Lord today is gathering all the seeking Christians to be one. So many seeking Christians are coming together to be built up into this oneness. This is happening not only in the U.S.A., but on the entire earth. Many seekers of Christ are for this oneness today. I do not mean a kind of unification. That is of the devil. We are one already, we do not need to be unified. We are one in Him. We all have His life in us.
The Lord also prayed concerning our oneness in the glory. What is the glory? It is just the expression of Christ. Jesus as the Son of God has the glory to express God. Now this glory to express God has been given by Jesus to us. Now in this glory, in this expression of God, we are one! We are not for the expression of immersion, sprinkling, tongue speaking, or anything else. All of these things divide the saints. We are for the expression of Christ. To this very day the Lord’s prayer in John 17 has not yet been fully fulfilled. Satan has used all of his divisive schemes and elements to divide the saints. Many people have come into our meetings and said that they do not like this or that. But who are they? They may not like it, but the Lord does! As long as there are no idols, no fornication, and no division, and as long as we all recognize the divine person of Jesus and His redeeming work, we are one. We should not oppose anything from others, neither should we impose anything on others. As long as we all express the Lord Jesus, that is sufficient.
In the Gospel of John, we see that Jesus is everything to us for the purpose of producing the Bride. This Bride is the temple of God, the building. It is also the vine tree, the one flock, and the one loaf. This Bride is the proper church life with the oneness of all the believers. Praise the Lord! This is the Lord’s recovery. It is not by teaching, but by taking Christ as our life and as our everything.