The Communion of the Holy Spirit (2 page)

Not only this, resurrection is also unrestricted by space. We remember how the two disciples on the road to Emmaus saw the risen Lord. Meanwhile, the other disciples back in Jerusalem also saw the resurrected Lord (see Luke 24.13-35). The Son of God has resurrected; He has transcended geography and time. So with respect to Him after His resurrection, there is no before or after time. He is not bound by any timetable. To Him nothing ever occurs three or five years later. The issues of time and space no longer exist. Today people throughout the entire earth may touch Him at the same time.

The greatest restriction on earth is death. There is nothing that is not under its control. Death is the limitation to all living beings. But in His resurrection, the Lord Jesus destroys the restriction of death. Though death is the greatest limitation, resurrection overcomes it. Resurrection, therefore, is the greatest power. If we touch the power of resurrection, we can easily cover all of China with the gospel of the kingdom.

What about the Holy Spirit? When Peter preached the gospel to the Jews, he said: “Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he [Christ Jesus] hath poured forth this, which ye see and hear” (Acts 2.33). Resurrection places the Lord at the right hand of God; and while He sits at the Father’s right hand, He pours forth the Holy Spirit. Thus, the power of the Holy Spirit is also the power of resurrection. This is to say that in the Holy Spirit the Lord pours forth resurrection together with the power of His resurrection. Hence, whoever touches the Spirit touches resurrection. As soon as a person is in the Holy Spirit he touches the resurrected Lord. The Holy Spirit testifies to the resurrection of the Lord.

When our Lord was on earth some leaned upon His breast, some kissed Him, some thronged Him, some received things from His hand. He washed people’s feet and touched their hands. During that time, though people were able to touch the Lord, their touch was far inferior to our touch today. For we are no longer restricted by time and space. Today, the risen Lord is in the Holy Spirit. What we thus see today far surpasses what they saw before. The Church is able to continue on for two thousand years due to the seeing of the Lord clearly within men. What we see
outwardly
may not be as clear as what those saw in the time of the record of the Gospels; yet
inwardly
our knowledge of the Lord exceeds that of that earlier time. The moment we are in the Spirit we immediately touch the Lord.

The prime work of the Holy Spirit is to transmit the resurrected Lord to us. He does not convey the Christ as recorded in the Gospels; He transmits the resurrected Christ. When people met the Lord while He was on earth they could only say how tall was His stature, how wise He was, and how old He looked. Some could say at one point in the Lord’s earthly life that He was only twelve years old or that they had seen His brothers in the flesh. But now in the Holy Spirit we are no longer restricted by time and space, and what we touch is also the Christ who is beyond time and space.

The Lord transcends all restrictions. The Holy Spirit today comes to testify to the transcendent Christ. If someone declares that he knows the Holy Spirit and yet today he does not know the resurrected Christ who transcends all, he is one who has not known the Christ in the Holy Spirit. For the power of resurrection is in the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1.21 declares that the resurrected Christ is “far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.” God has made the risen Lord to sit at His right hand and caused Him to transcend everything known and unknown to men. All that can be named has been surpassed by the Lord, not only in this world but also in that world to come. Resurrection breaks through all barriers. Normally only the everlasting transcends all. But God plans to allow the mortal to transcend also. The work of the Holy Spirit today is to reveal this resurrection power in us. We should recognize that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of resurrection. The Spirit who transcends all is the Holy Spirit.

Let us speak of the Church. What is it? The Church means that the Lord is the Head and we are the Body. What, then, is the relationship between the Church and resurrection? What is the Church’s relationship with the Holy Spirit? Ephesians 1.19-20 speaks of the exceeding greatness of the power which God wrought in Christ when He raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. Yet the Church is where this same power also works. Let us take note of the word “according” in verse 19: “what the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might which he wrought in Christ.” In other words, the exceeding greatness of God’s power which works in Christ works also in us the Church. The mighty power which the Church is now experiencing is the same as Christ had experienced. . The Church and Christ are not only the same in nature, they are the same in power. Otherwise, the Church is empty. The way by which God broke through all limitations in the Lord is the same way God will enable the Church to break through all barriers.

Therefore, the Church today should have the same power and enjoy the same liberty, uninhibited by anything, just as the risen Lord himself had. Otherwise, it cannot be considered the Church. The exceedingly great power of God works not just in Christ, it continues to work today also in the Church. The Church is the reservoir of the power of resurrection today. This is the Church. Nothing less is acceptable. The Church is the body of Christ; accordingly it should not fall short of this exceedingly great power.

This is followed by Ephesians 1.22-23 which states that God had not only raised Christ from the dead and made Him far above all, but also that God “put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church.” Jesus is risen and glorified. He is no longer the humble Nazarene. He is the victorious Christ. All things today are subject to Him. While He was on earth He was the perfect man. He was Head, but not yet the glorified Head; for at that time the possibility of death had yet to be broken. Many Bible teachers try to find the Church in the four Gospels. But the Church cannot be found in the Gospels (see below) because the account therein is of a Jesus who was still restricted. Had the Church been related only to the earthly life of Jesus, she would be merely a limited institution. We think it is enough to possess the Lord’s earthly power and authority, but God pronounces this to be insufficient. God led Christ through death and resurrection, and then through the coming of the Holy Spirit deposited that resurrection power in the Church.

Today the Church receives its supply of power in the ascended and glorified Christ. Therefore, there is no problem the Church cannot solve and no temptation the Church cannot overcome. For the power of the Church is the power of the resurrection of Christ-that which subdues all things under His feet. Her power is no less than the power which had been wrought in Christ.

When Christ was on earth, there was no Church. For then He had not been resurrected and everything was yet under restriction. After Christ was raised from the dead, had ascended up to heaven and poured out the Holy Spirit, the Church was born. The Lord is risen, so the Church becomes the body of Christ, being filled with the nature, and becoming the vessel, of the resurrected Christ. Christ is the Head, and the Church as His body is the fullness of Him who fills all in all. As Christ is, so is the Church. As Christ is unrestricted, so the Church is not restricted. There is no better analogy to describe Christ and the Church than that of the human body. In the latter, the head and all its members share one life, having one nature. And to be the body, all its members must be present. So is it with the body of Christ. I may make a chair short of one leg, but the body of Christ cannot be short of any leg, arm or whatever.

We believers are made to drink of one Holy Spirit. The same Spirit causes us to be the body of Christ. For this reason, wherever two persons on earth touch the resurrection of Christ, what they bind shall be bound and what they loose shall be loosed (see Matt. 18.18- 20). The minimum of the Church is two persons. If, then, two can touch the power of resurrection and stand on the ground of resurrection, they can command all situations. In former days the Church was ignorant of this potential, hence it probably took decades to make any progress. Now that we know what the Church is, we can make great strides. Even your personal, impossible situation will be quickly resolved. For the Church is the reservoir of the power of the resurrection of Christ.

What is the work of the Holy Spirit today? The Spirit today is manifesting the resurrection power of Christ in the Church. All problems are now solved: “the gates of Hades shall not prevail against” the Church, said the Lord (Matt. 18.18b). I personally am persuaded that this word suggests that all the gates of Hades shall be open towards the Church; and yet these gates shall not prevail against the Church. Why? Because Hades represents death, whereas the Church represents resurrection. The Church shall therefore prevail.

Hence, for the Lord to have His way on earth today, it lies not in how much our walk has changed, or in how much truth we know, but in whether there are people who really are willing to pay any cost to know resurrection, the Holy Spirit, and the Church. But if so, the Church shall have a glorious testimony.

In practice each one of us has already experienced something of resurrection, since the salvation of any soul is the work of resurrection. On the other hand, people may endure suffering, and even die a martyr’s death, for the Lord. All of this is because of the power of resurrection. First Corinthians 15 is a chapter in the Scriptures on the truth of resurrection. It concludes with the word, “always abounding in the work of the Lord” (v.58b), which work is done in the power of resurrection. It is also in this power of resurrection that people bear the cross, receive spiritual edification, see some light, and arrive at holiness.

During the last two thousand years these truths have been brought-here a little, there a little-to today’s understanding. If today people would stand on this resurrection ground, there would be a great result. I have an idea that people today do not see sufficiently enough of the Lord’s resurrection.

The Lord is powerful. He transcends all things and is able to break down every barrier. Yet He is but the Head. What is marvelous is that today God wants us to be joined with the Lord in one. Such a New Man in Christ is beyond restriction and is well able to manifest the power of God. Oh, this is such a tremendous thing. Unless in our day we have this revelation we will not be able to make any advance in testimony. Were we to receive some light before the Lord so as to see, we would save much time and energy. May the Lord be merciful to us and open our eyes that we may see resurrection, the Holy Spirit, and the Church and their interrelatedness.

Last Lord’s Day we spoke on Resurrection, the Holy Spirit, and the Church. Today we want to speak further about these matters. What we saw last Lord’s Day was that death is the greatest restriction. We want to reinforce this word. All living creatures end at death. Accordingly, for all living things the ultimate limitation is death. Small animals end at death, but so do the big animals. All living things, from plants to animals, are altogether circumscribed by death. Yet this is also true with respect to human beings. Man’s intellect may advance considerably, such as in the case of the rich man spoken of in one of the parables of the Lord Jesus (in it, interestingly enough, God addressed the rich man as, “Thou foolish one”). The advanced intellect of this rich man enables him to plan and plot for his future, but he is finished and done for when God requires his soul (see Luke 12.16-21). Many of our loved ones-such as our fathers, mothers and children-have died. And once having died, they are never recalled to life. But so many great men suffered the same consequence; however powerful and influential they were in their lives, they too died and are gone. Hence, death is the greatest restriction.

When the Lord Jesus was on earth He was the representative man. During His forty days after resurrection He was still the representative man. In His thirty three years on earth He was the representation of morality, but in His first forty days after resurrection He stood as the representation of power. In fact, these forty days manifested His power. Fundamental theologians view the Lord Jesus on earth as the typical or standard man. They correctly deduce that if the Lord had not died for us God would for sure have condemned us for our sins because we have all fallen below the standard, and are thus under condemnation. Had Christ not died and the veil in the temple not been rent, God would have condemned us for our sins instead of having saved us. But past theologians did not clearly see the truth surrounding the resurrection of Christ. Only in this century have people begun to see resurrection truth in a fuller light. Resurrected man alone is God’s man of design: “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee” (Heb. 1.5). As we have indicated already, this declaration by God has reference to the time when the Lord Jesus was risen and came out of the tomb. After the Lord was resurrected and had emerged from the tomb, God said to Him, “This day have I begotten thee.” It was there and then that God obtained the Man of His heart desire.