THE UNIQUE WORK IN GOD’S ECONOMY
Message Ten
The Region of the Work and the Center of Work
Scripture reading: Acts 1:8; Rev. 22:1; Acts 15:3; 1 Cor. 12:12-13; Eph. 4:11-12, 4; Col. 3:10-11
I. The Lord’s work has always been from the center to the circumference; the book of Revelation also mentions that the river of water of life is proceeding out of the throne to reach everywhere in the city; the Lord’s work within us is also from the spirit to the soul, and then to the body; the principle of all God’s work is from the center to the circumference—Acts 1:8; Rev. 22:1.
A. The principle of God’s work is to work from the center to the circumference; for example, when we throw a stone into a pond, ripples are stirred up in the water which spread out from the center circle by circle; the working of God in us is also from the center to the circumference—cf. 1 Thes. 5:23.
B. The gospel spread from Jerusalem to Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth; this is God’s way; if a man starts working from the ends of the earth, he is taking the wrong direction; we must work from the center to the circumference—Acts 1:8.
C. The churches do not have an organizational center on the earth Jerusalem was not the headquarters of a centralized organization; however, in terms of the work and spiritual supply, there is a center; at that time Jerusalem was the center of the work in all the places—Acts 15:1-2.
II. In the New Testament, for the apostles’ work, there were only two regions; one was the Jewish world, and the other was the Gentile world; but they never divided the churches; they are two regions not two works—1 Cor. 12:12-13; Eph. 2:16:
A. Peter was working in the Jewish region, and that area was relatively small; but the Gentile world in which Paul worked was vast with different countries.
B. The regions of the work should not divide the churches; there were regions in Paul’s time, the Jewish and the Gentile, but they never divided the churches—Acts 15:1-2; Rom. 15:25-27; Gal. 2:8-9:
1. The churches in the Gentile world had fellowship with those in the Jewish world in solving the problems in teaching—Acts 15:1-34.
2. The churches in the Gentile world also had fellowship with those in the Jewish world in supplying the physical need; in this fellowship they were considered as one—Rom. 15:25-27.
3. Furthermore, Paul, who worked in the Gentile world, was concerned for the church in Jerusalem; he had a heavy burden to help the church in Jerusalem to enter into God’s New Testament economy—Rom. 16:1-4; Acts 19:21; 20:16; 21:12-13, 17-19.
4. Peter, who worked in the Jewish world, was also accepted by the church in Corinth in the Gentile world; His teaching, his work, was accepted by the church in Corinth; otherwise, some of them would not have been able to say that they were of Cephas—1 Cor. 1:12.
5. The co-workers in the Jewish world and those in the Gentile world had pleasant and sweet fellowship with one another; they did not consider themselves to be separated from one another; they considered themselves as one in the divine fellowship—Gal. 2:8-9.
6. Paul and Peter did not carry out two works; even though they worked in different regions, they had only one work to build up the Body of Christ—Eph. 4:12; Col. 1:24.
C. All the above points show that all the co-workers in all the regions should do the same one work universally for the unique Body; we should do only one work; there should not be several works in the Lord’s recovery—1 Cor. 16:10.
III. In God’s eyes there are centers in His work; the co-workers must see that the work has to be centralized, not scattered; the locality which is the center first must be set up in good order—Acts 8:14, 25; 15:1-2:
A. God’s work is carried out by a region; for His work God wants to establish a locality as a center; all of the workers should be centralized in that locality, sometimes going out and sometimes coming back—Acts 8:14, 25:
1. Peter went out to Caesarea and returned to Jerusalem; then Peter went to Samaria and then returned to Jerusalem; Jerusalem was the center—Acts 8:14, 25; 10:21; 11:2.
2. Although Paul was in Antioch, when a problem arose, he brought it back to Jerusalem; Jerusalem is not a matter of geography but a matter of principle—Acts 15:1-2.
B. When the churches encountered spiritual problems and needed spiritual supply, Jerusalem was the center of the supply; but it was not a center in terms of organization; Jerusalem was the center of the work and of the spiritual supply—Acts 15:1-2.
C. The whole work today must be carried out according to the principle of the Body; it must be carried out in coordination, not in a scattered way.
IV. The Lord has, in the New Testament age, one unique ministry for one move to produce one unique Body as one unique testimony; for such a Body the Lord only has one work on this earth—Eph. 4:11-12, 4; Rev. 1:2; 1 Cor. 15:58:
A. In the Body there are no regions and there are no Jews or Greeks; every kind of distinction has altogether disappeared in the Body—1 Cor. 12:13.
B. Whatever you do in your locality is a part of the Lord’s recovery; we must take care of the churches, the Body; we must ask ourselves, “Could the Body take this? Could the Body say Amen to us? ”
C. We are all in the recovery, but mostly we bear a regional flavor; this is not scriptural because all the members in the Body of Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, should bear the same flavor—Rom. 12:5.
D. All the lampstands in Revelation 1 bear the same one testimony of Jesus; all the lampstands are of the same type, the same appearance, and the same kind of shining; although the Lord Jesus pointed out all of the differences between the seven churches, He pointed out these differences in a negative and rebuking way—Rev. 1:9.
E. No work is ours; the work is the unique work of the Lord—1 Cor. 15:58; 16:10.
F. All the churches raised up by the work are not our churches; in the New Testament there is only the church of God, the church of Christ, and the church of the saints; there is not a church of the apostles in the New Testament; the apostles are the slaves serving the churches—1 Cor. 1:2; 10:32; Rom. 16:16; 1 Cor. 14:33; 1 Thes. 1:1; 2 Cor. 4:4-5.
V. When the one new man has been brought into full existence, we will not speak of the differences between the churches or of the jurisdiction and autonomy of the local churches; instead, we will realize that all the churches are parts of the universal one new man—Rev. 1:4, 11-12; Col. 3:10-11; 4:15-16.
