The gospel of John is a book on life and building; God comes to is in Christ to be our life, and this life is for God’s building – for Christ as life meets the need of every man’s case to build up the house of God.
This week in our deeper study of what the genuine church life is, we come to the topic of, The Issue of Life – The Church Life as a House of Feasting for God’s Building, mainly based on the Gospel of John, ch. 12:1-11.
Before we come to the matter of the genuine church life as seen in John, we need to realize that this gospel shows us how life meets the need of every man’s case to build up the house of God.
From the first to the last of the nine cases in John 2-12 we see that the Lord Jesus came to change death into life, and He as life meets all man’s needs for the building up of God’s house, His building.
The intention of the Holy Spirit throughout the gospel of John is simply to make the Lord Jesus to be the life to meet all our needs. Whether we are dead, hungry, sick, dying, impotent, thirsty, or immoral, the Lord as life meets the need of every man’s case.
The way God cares for us and meets our need is not by improving us or correcting us, neither is it by regulating our behaviour to reform us. He comes into us as life, and this life enlivens us, regenerates us, resurrects us, and re-creates us.
If we just open to the Lord, He will quench our thirst, satisfy our hunger, enlighten our darkness, break our bondage in sin, and swallow up our death by His resurrection life. How can this happen? It is by experiencing Christ as our resurrection life in the Spirit and through the Word.
When we come to the Lord in His word in a living way, Christ is experienced by us as the Spirit and through the word; He satisfies us, enlightens us, frees us, and resurrects us.
When we touch this living One in His word, we are resurrected from the dead, we are delivered from any aspect of death, and nothing can suppress us, restrict us, or imprison us, for we are living in resurrection one with the Lord who is the life within us. Hallelujah!
The Gospel of John shows that Life Meets the Need of Every Man’s Case to Build the House of God
The Need of the Moral is Life’s Regenerating
In John 3 we see the case of Nicodemus, a moral and good man, a man of the Old Testament Scriptures; he was a good man, but he didn’t have the divine life.
He came to Jesus to know more and even enter into the kingdom of God, but the Lord told him, Unless someone is born anew, he can’t see the kingdom of God.
The need of this moral man, Nicodemus, was not improvement, rules, and the law, but the life of God – he needed to receive the life of God, so that he would enter into the kingdom of God.
Christ, by being put on the cross, became the reality of the bronze serpent; He had the likeness of the flesh of sin but not the sin of the flesh, and he put sin to death, crucified the flesh, and as we look to Him we can live.
Only by believing into Him can we be regenerated to have His life and enter into the kingdom of God. And He in us becomes the life that grows, increases, and produces us as the bride – He’s the Bridegroom, and we are His bride (John 3:29).
The need of the Immoral is Life’s Satisfying
Christ as life meets the need of every man’s case for the building up of the church.
In John 4 we see the case of an immoral woman, a Samaritan woman, for whom the Lord detoured to go to Sychar to meet. He takes many detours to meet the immoral and thirsty sinners, so that He would satisfy us with His life.
The Samaritan woman may not be something we would consider the best material for the church life, but the Lord went to meet her, and He gave her to drink of Himself.
In this chapter we see that every person who drinks of the enjoyment of material things, amusements, and entertainment (“this water”) shall thirst again, but the water that Christ gives us will become in us a fountain of living water!
The Lord here made a comparison between the water that He gives – the flowing Triune God to become the totality of eternal life – and the water in the world, which causes us to be thirst again, leaving us dissatisfied.
Many times we go back to the water in the world, forgetting the Lord’s word and His promise in John 4:13. There is only one kind of water that can satisfy us, and this is the Father as the source, the Son as the spring, and the Spirit as the flowing river.
If we don’t drink of Him, we are heartbroken, uneasy, and dissatisfied, because the other kind of water does not satisfy! But when we drink of Him, He meets our need by satisfying us with His flowing life!
Thank You Lord for coming as the life who meets the need of every man’s case for the building up of the church. Lord, we are thirsty: give us to drink of the living water, the water that becomes in us a fountain springing up into eternal life! We admit, Lord, that the water in the world does not quench our thirst but rather leaves us dissatisfied….only You can satisfy us! Amen, Lord, give us to drink of Yourself, the flowing Triune God, to meet our need and build up Your church!
The Need of the Dying is Life’s Healing
In John 4:46-53 there was a royal official whose son was dying, and he came to Jesus to ask Him to go heal him; the Lord said, Go, your son lives! – and he went, believing. When he got home, his son was alive and well, and when he enquired of it, he found out that his fever left him when the Lord told him a word.
Christ as life meets the need of every man’s case – and our situation is not just that we’re thirsty and dissatisfied, but we are dead and dying! In His eyes, we all have a great fever that leads to death; but by coming to the Lord in His word, His living word heals us.
Hallelujah for the Lord’s instant, spoken, living word that heals our dying condition!
The Need of the Impotent is Life’s Enlivening
In John 5:2-3, 5-9, 17, 19, 25-26, 30, 39-40 we see an impotent man who was 38 years in his sickness; he was waiting by the pool so that, when an angel would come and touch the water, he would go in and be healed – but for many years, others went in before him.
The Lord Jesus came to him, and told him to rise up, take up his mat, and walk!
Our condition before the Lord is that we are impotent, unable to do His will or fulfill God’s purpose; we may rely and trust in religion which says that when there’s a miracle from God, He may touch us and change our condition….but we are too weak to be touched by the Lord.
So the Lord comes to us and simply tells us a living word: rise up, take up your mat, and walk! His life is contained in His word, and His living word enables us to fulfill God’s purpose, enlivening us in our impotent condition!
The Need of the Hungry is Life’s Feeding
We are hungry, and nothing in this world can satisfy us; we all need the Lord as life to feed us.
In John 6:5-13, 32-33, 35, 48-51, 57, 63 we see the 5000 men (besides women and children) who were listening to the Lord’s speaking, and they were hungry; the way the Lord fed them was the way of life.
The barley loaf signifies the generating aspect of the life of Christ for our organic salvation, and the fist His redeeming life for our redemption.
Christ is the bread of life, the living bread, the bread that comes down out from heaven, the bread of God, and the true bread; if we eat Him, we will live because of Him (John 6:57).
Our need as hungry people is life’s feeding – we need the feeding of the divine life, which is by eating the Lord as our spiritual food!
The Lord came to be our spiritual food to be the element, source, and basic factor of our living, and we need to eat Him, masticate Him, and digest Him, for Him to be lived out in us.
Lord Jesus, we are hungry – give us to eat! Only Your life can feed us and satisfy our hunger. Thank You for coming to us as the bread of life, the living bread, and the true bread of God. We open our mouth and our spirit wide to enjoy You, eat You, masticate You, and be filled with You, for only You as living bread can satisfy us and cause us to live for Your purpose!
The need of the Thirsty is Life’s Quenching
In the last day – the great day of the feast, after the Jewish people ate and drank and were supposedly satisfied, Jesus stood and cried out, If anyone thirst let him come to Me and drink (see John 7:37-39).
We may think that this world has to offer us so many things, and even religion with its promises may give us so much, but at the end of the day, we all are very thirsty. No matter how much we drink from other things, only Christ as the life-giving Spirit in resurrection can quench our thirst.
Christ as life meets the need of every man’s case to build up the church as the house of God; as those who are thirsty, we need to constantly come to the Lord to drink Him as the life-giving Spirit.
When we drink Christ – who today is the Spirit – He quenches our thirst, and He becomes in us a fountain springing up to quench others’ thirst also.
The Need of those under Bondage of Sin is Life’s Setting Free
In John 8 we see the case of a woman caught in the act of adultery; as the Lord was teaching the word, the Jews brought this woman to Him to see what He would say concerning her, for Moses said that she should be stoned.
But He humbly stopped to write on the ground, and He replied, He who is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone.
Who is without sin? It is only Jesus, and He didn’t have a stone in His hand to condemn.
Who can condemn? Only Jesus can, but He doesn’t condemn, but He forgives our sin, and He sets us free from sin.
He is the light of the world – He can set us free from sin. He is the great I am – He can be whatever we need!
He is the truth – He sets us free, and as the Son He can free us from sin, and we are free indeed! This Jesus is the sinless One, the great I am.
The Need of the Blind in Religion is Life’s Sight and Life’s Shepherding
In John 9:1, 6-7, 24-25, 35-41; 10:9-16, 27-30 we see the case of a man who was blind from birth; the Lord spat on the ground, made clay out of the spittle, anointed his eyes, sent him to the pool to wash, and when he washed the clay off, he came away seeing.
The spittle signifies the Lord’s words as spirit and life, the dust signifies humanity; the mingling of the Lord’s word with our humanity gives us the sight of life.
Religion may persecute us (just as the Pharisees persecuted the man who used to be blind), but the Lord meets us where we are, He heals our sick condition, He gives us back our sight, and He becomes our Lord – Lord, we believe!
Furthermore, the Lord is the good Shepherd, and we as His sheep follow Him, listen to His voice, and come out of the fold to enjoy Him as the rich pasture.
The Need of the Dead is Life’s Resurrecting
In John 11 we see the case of Lazarus, who was the Lord’s friend, who died and then was resurrected by the Lord; we are not only sick, thirsty, impotent, hungry, and blind, but we are dead, and we need life’s enlivening. Life meets the need of every man’s case to build the house of God.
But what is most striking in John 11 is how much man with his opinion frustrates the Lord with His resurrection life and power.
Martha had many opinions concerning the Lord, the disciples had opinions concerning Lazarus and going with the Lord to him to die together, Mary had opinions, and the Jews also had opinions.
What frustrates the Lord’s operation in His resurrection life in the church life is our opinions. He wants to break through and bring in life to resurrect us and those who are in death, but our opinions frustrate Him.
Therefore, we need His speaking, Come out!
And we also need the saints to help us be loosed from anything related to death, just as Lazarus needed the others to release him from the clothes wrapped around him.
Sometimes we are released from death, but we still have the vestiges of death upon us – we have the trace of death, the “grave-clothes”; so we need the saints to help us, unwrap us, so we can be free of death in a full way.
Lord Jesus, save us from uttering our opinions in the church life. We need You to come in and speak Your resurrecting word to us so that we may be free from any death. Oh Lord, may we experience You as the resurrection life with its power, so that we may be delivered from death and released to live a life for Your purpose. Lord, only You as life can meet all our needs for the building of the house of God!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of John, msg. 24 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Genuine Church Life (2017 Thanksgiving Conference), week 3, The Issue of Life — the Church Life as a House of Feasting for God’s Building.
- Hymns on this topic:
# While we yet were weak and helpless, / Christ the Son of God did come. / By His word we’re now enlivened; / He’s the life-imparting One! (Hymns #1185)
# Thou art the food and the water of life, / Thou canst revive me, my spirit upbear; / I long to eat and to drink here of Thee, / Thyself enjoy through my reading and prayer. (Hymns #811)
# A man among the multitude lay helpless, / So weak while waiting till the water stirred. / Religion of the law could never heal him; / Then Jesus came and spoke the living word. (Hymns #1329)
About aGodMan
The principle of the Gospel of John is Christ as life in resurrection. The intention of this gospel is not to improve or reform us by regulating our behavior. The Lord’s only intention is to bring life into us. This life will enliven, regenerate, resurrect, and re-create us. If we can apprehend the principle of this gospel, our thirst will be quenched, our hunger satisfied, our darkness enlightened, our bondage in sin broken, and our death swallowed up by resurrection—all by experiencing Christ as our resurrection life in the Spirit and through the Word. We can never experience the living Christ by anything of ourselves or by any of our doings. The living Christ is only experienced in the Spirit and through the Word. The Spirit and the Word will bring us into the principle of life in resurrection. If we take Him in the Spirit and through the Word, we shall then be satisfied, enlightened, freed, and resurrected. When we are resurrected from the dead, we are delivered from all aspects of death. Nothing can suppress us, nothing can restrict us, and nothing can imprison us because we are living in resurrection. (Life-study of John, p. 292, by Witness Lee)
Amen!
BUILD LORD!! FINISH the building!!
Praise the Lord!
Amen! Only You Lord as life can meet all our needs for the building of the house of God… Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!
Praise the Lord!
I appreciate that the wording of the outline of John actually states not “every man’s case” but “man’s every case,” indicating that all these needs are met for each one of us.