Msg. 5 The Leading in the Church Being Multifaceted

GENERAL SUBJECT:
CRUCIAL PRINCIPLES FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE CHURCH

Message Five
The Leading in the Church Being Multifaceted

Scripture Reading: Ezek. 1:10; John 18:37; 14:6; 1 Tim. 3:15; Eph. 1:13

I. When we consider our history, we see that, according to scriptural principles, the Lord has led us along a comprehensive path—Ezek. 1:10; Rev. 4:6-7:

A. The revelation contained in the sixty-six books of the Bible is multifaceted; for example, the four living creatures mentioned in Ezekiel are also in Revelation—Ezek. 1:10-15; Rev. 4:6-7, 9:

1. Each of the four living creatures has four faces: at the front is the face of a man; on the right, the face of a lion; on the left, the face of an ox; and at the back, the face of an eagle—Ezek. 1:10-15.

2. What are the four creatures? Are they men, lions, oxen, or eagles? Based on the revelation in the Bible, we can say that the four living creatures are multifaceted —Rev. 4:6-7.

B. The revelation in the Bible is multifaceted; Paul tells Timothy how to deal with the saints of different ages—1 Tim 5:1-15.

C. The normal situation of individuals, families and churches is multifaceted—1 Thes. 5:23; 1 Tim 5:1-15:

1. God created man as a multifaceted being because he has a spirit, a soul, and also a body; as a normal person, we must have a healthy body, a prosperous soul, and a strong spirit; by taking such multifaceted care of ourselves, we will become healthy people—1 Thes. 5:23.

2. A normal family has three or four generations; this includes noisy young children; even though the children might not be well behaved, they are full of vitality.

3. In the church we should not wish that the saints would be the same as we are—1 Tim 5:1-15.

D. Christians throughout the centuries, especially Christian leaders, have been prone to make the mistake of not being multifaceted; we need to see the problems in church history so that we may appreciate our need to be multifaceted.

II. The service of the church emphasizes being multifaceted—having Christ as the center; truth, life, the church, and the gospel can be compared to each of the four living creatures having four faces and Christ is their center; to have four sides is to be multifaceted—John 18:37; 14:6; 1 Tim. 3:15-16; Eph. 1:13:

A. Our testimony will not merely be that we are zealous for the gospel, clear concerning the truth, and rich in life; it will also be that we live a corporate church life; if our testimony includes these four aspects, we will have the true testimony of the Lord in the local churches—Rev. 1:1-2, 10-12.

B. In church history some believers, such as the inner-life believers, have placed much emphasis on the matter of life; in the end, however, they veered far off course and did not have a second generation; there have also been believers in the evangelical movement who only emphasized preaching the gospel; however, they had no foundation in the truth, were inadequate in life, and had no church life—Gen. 2:9-10, Acts 2:1-4, 42, 46-47:

1. We should not emphasize life and neglect preaching the gospel, nor should we overemphasize the gospel and neglect life.

2. However, when we pay attention to life, we should go out to preach the gospel; when we preach the gospel, we are also paying attention to life.

C. If we do not have the truth, the ground of the church becomes an empty slogan; if without life, everything is empty; if we are not zealous for the gospel and do not bring in new ones, it will not be long before there is no one left to continue standing on the ground; this is why we must be multifaceted.

III. We must learn the lesson of paying attention to the truth, to life, to the church life, and to the gospel; we must also pay attention to the number of saints—Acts 1:13-14; 2:1-4, 41:

A. We must also pay attention to the number of saints; if a church has no quantity, how can it have quality?

B. We must understand that people are our capital; our capital lies in our numbers; we must have capital before we can accomplish anything; if there are no people in the church, the church has nothing; the second generation depends on numbers.

IV. The church cannot be single-sided; it must be multifaceted; our work must be comprehensive; we must not focus merely on numbers; we must also have the truth, the divine life, and a proper, transcendent, and living church life; this is our comprehensive leading—Hosea 7:8.