The Sacrificing Christ Lives in us to Energize us to Sacrifice Ourselves for Others

The vine is a type of the sacrificing Christ, the Christ who sacrificed everything of Himself, and out of this sacrifice He produced new wine to cheer God and man; such a One lives in us to energize us to live a sacrificing life to cheer God and man. Hallelujah!

This week in our morning revival we come to a simple yet very profound topic, A Land of Vines.

The good land is a land of vines. God has given us the good land, and this land is a land of wheat and barley, a land of vines.

When we see what it means that the good land is a land of vines, when we enter into the practical experience of this matter, we will love the Lord much more, we will be so happy, and we will love the house of God, for we are cheered by the new wine produced by Christ as the vine. Amen!

In order for us to be prepared for the Lord’s coming, for us to make ourselves ready for His return, we need to enter into the enjoyment and experience of the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land.

For us to be ready for the Lord’s return, we need to be the crazy lovers of Jesus.

We need to love Him to the uttermost. However, our loving the Lord is not a matter of outward behaviour or performance; it is based on a revelation of who Christ is.

When we see who the Lord is, how sweet and wonderful He is, we will just love Him.

When we see the Lord’s preciousness when we realize how all-inclusive and lovable He is, we will give ourselves to love Him, and we will be crazy lovers of Jesus.

May we see more of Jesus today and even through reading this article, may we love Him more. May we learn to drop everything else, everything, every distraction, and every kind of anxiety, to just turn our hearts to the Lord and behold Him.

When we behold the Lord, when we behold His face, we will be attracted by the most wonderful person in the whole universe.

The more we see Him, the more we enjoy Him.

And the more we see the Lord and enjoy Him, we will be a little bit crazy; this is not the craziness in the outward performance but being a crazy lover of the Lord.

We are crazy by not caring so much for what the world does or say, but we care for the Lord.

We love the Lord, and we don’t care what others think; no matter what our friends may say to us or do, we are the Oh Lord Jesus I love You people!

And we are full of happiness and rejoicing, with a lot of joy, because the bride and the groom are coming together, and everyone shares in this kind of happiness.

The Lord has called us to this, to enjoy Him until we enter into the wedding feast, and He is the new wine for us to be cheered up. Praise the Lord!

The Sacrificing Christ is the Reality of the Vine: He Sacrifices Himself to Produce New Wine to Cheer God and Man

What does it mean for us to enjoy and experience the all-inclusive Christ as a land of vines?

What is the reality or application of the vine in the good land, and how can we experience this in our daily life?

In John 15 we clearly see that Christ is the vine. No doubt, Christ is the vine, the reality of the vine.

In particular, the vine typifies the sacrificing Christ, the Christ who sacrificed everything of Himself, and out of this sacrifice He produced new wine to cheer God and man (see Deut. 8:8; Judg. 9:13; Psa. 104:15).

Christ came to be the vine, and one of the outstanding characteristics or features of the vine is that it sacrifices itself to produce grapes which are turned into wine to cheer man.

The vine is a type of Christ, in particular, a type of the sacrificing Christ.

When Christ came to the earth, He did not come as a King to be served by man nor did He come as the Fullness of God to be worshipped by man; He came as a sacrificing Christ, the reality of the vine.

If we consider the Lord’s life we will see that He lived a life of sacrifice. He sacrificed in every possible way.

He did this because He loves us, and He did this because His life is a sacrificing life.

When He was with His disciples, He sacrificed Himself; when He met the Pharisees and the Sadducees, He sacrificed Himself.

He sacrificed His sleep, His comfort, His rest, and everything about Himself so that others may eat, be satisfied, be healed, and be nourished both with physical food and spiritual food.

He was pressed from every side, and He sacrificed Himself. On one hand, a vine spreads and grows, and the church as the organism of the Triune God is His increase, His spread, and His growth, spreading all over the earth.

On the other hand, the vine is a type of the sacrificing Christ. he lived through many pressing circumstances, and He produced new wine. He even said that new wine cannot be put in old wineskins, otherwise, the wineskins will burst (Mark 2:22).

Because He was pressed, constrained, limited, and constricted, new wine came out of Him to satisfy and cheer God and man.

God was happy with Christ, calling Him His beloved (Matt. 3:17), and man was cheered by the Lord’s presence, being drawn to Him and running after Him.

There was something attractive, aromatic, and cheerful about the Lord.

Though His appearance was not pleasant to sight, there was the new wine with Him, for He was the sacrificing Christ, and many were drawn to Him.

The vine typifies the sacrificing Christ.

He sacrificed Himself willingly, being willing to lay down His life for His sheep; He came that we may have life and may have it abundantly, and for this, He sacrificed Himself (John 10).

The Lord emptied Himself, not maintaining His status as God or His stature as part of the Godhead; He put aside the outward form of His divinity and lowered Himself, humbled Himself, and sacrificed Himself (Phil. 2).

Eph. 5:25-26 also tells us that He gave Himself up for the church to sanctify her and make her His beautiful bride.

He did not hold anything for Himself; He laid down His life for His sheep.

In Mark 14:33 we see that, in the garden of Gethsemane, prior to His crucifixion, He prayed, began to be awestruck and deeply distressed, being in the grip of a shuddering horror in the face of the dreadful prospect before Him.

Though He knew He would commit the ultimate sacrifice, laying down His human life for His people, He took the cup from the Father by accepting His will.

What a sacrificing Christ we have!

When we see His self-sacrificing life, we are drawn to Him.

We are just attracted to this One, and we love Him, we appreciate Him, and we are thankful for His sacrifice for us.

We simply thank Him and praise Him, and we appreciate Him.

Lord Jesus, thank You for being the sacrificing Christ who gave Himself up for us so that God and man may be cheered and satisfied. Thank You for coming that we may have life and may have it abundantly, and for this You laid down Your own life. How we appreciate You as the One who laid down His life for the sheep. You came for us to be brought back to God, and You paid the ultimate price, sacrificing even Your own human life for us to be redeemed. Oh Lord, we love You and we appreciate You as the sacrificing Christ. We enjoy You and we are cheered by the new wine produced by Your sacrificing life. You cheer us, Lord, and You make us happy. You make God happy and You also make us happy. Thank You for producing the new wine out of Your sacrificing life to cheer God and man. We just love You. We appreciate You. We open to You. We want to experience and enjoy You as the sacrificing Christ today!

Christ as the Sacrificing Lamb Lives in us to Energize us to Sacrifice ourselves for Others to bring them Cheer

On one hand, we appreciate and love the sacrificing Christ as the reality of the vines; on the other hand, we enjoy Him and experience Him as the sacrificing Christ.

We all can testify that, to a certain extent, we had a certain amount of experience of Christ as the vine, but we may have not realized it nor did we pay much attention to it.

Sometimes under the Lord’s sovereignty, we are put into a certain situation where we need to sacrifice ourselves to make others happy and also to make the Lord happy.

When in this kind of situation we contact the Lord, we experience Him as the wine-producing vine.

In ourselves, we don’t really want to sacrifice ourselves, for we love ourselves and it’s so comfortable and nice to just remain in ourselves.

But when we contact the sacrificing Christ, we are energized by His life to sacrifice ourselves for others and bring them cheer.

Out of this experience, we become the vine; we become the producer of something that cheers both God and man.

If we think about our experience, we realize that this has been our experience sometimes.

How wonderful it is that we can experience Christ in all situations, and He is all-inclusive!

On one hand, Christ is limited and willing to be limited so that He can impart His life into many others; this is to experience Christ as the grain of wheat.

On the other hand, Christ is the resurrected One, full of life and power, and nothing can hold Him down, and we experience Him as such a One in our limiting and constraining situations.

This is the experience of Christ as the barley.

Still more, we can experience Christ as the sacrificing One, the One who sacrifices Himself for the sake of others to make them happy, to give them to drink the new wine.

In Judges 9:12-13 we are told, in a parable, that the vine does not desire to wave over the trees but rather provide the sweet wine to God and man to cheer them up.

A sacrificing person is one who does not desire to rule over others or to lord it over them; he is satisfied with sacrificing himself so that new wine may be produced to satisfy God and man.

Sometimes in the church life we realize that the saints are happy with a particular person because he is always providing new wine, sacrificing himself for others to be happy. We need to be such ones.

We want to experience Christ in the aspect of living a sacrificing life in Christ and with Christ, being one with Christ as a wine producer.

We need to realize that Christ as the sacrificing Lamb lives in us, and He energizes us to sacrifice ourselves for others to bring them cheer.

What a Christ we have!

Sometimes, however, we have to admit that, when we don’t enjoy Christ as the vine, nothing pleases us.

The sun may be shining, but we are not happy with how bright it is.

The food on the table may be delicious, but we may not be content because it is too hot or too cold.

The bed may be too hard and cold, the people around us may be too harsh to us, and the weather is just too cold or too hot. Oh, Lord.

When we don’t enjoy Christ as the sacrificing One, nothing pleases us, and in turn, we are not happy with the Lord or with others.

But if we experience and enjoy Christ as the wine producer, the One who sacrifices Himself to produce wine for others and for God, we will be happy in the Lord and we will even be drunk with the new wine.

We will enjoy the sacrificing Christ and we will be filled with the new wine, being crazy with Christ.

We will be a person who is drunk and crazy with Christ!

We will be so happy, for the Lord in us energizes us to live a sacrificing life, and we will spontaneously make others happy.

May we be those who drink Christ as the new wine day by day.

May we come to Him and enjoy Him, even asking Him to be our life and everything as we live our daily life so that we may bring cheer to God and man by living a sacrificing life one with the Lord.

May we be those who experience Christ as the sacrificing Lamb living in us and energizing us to sacrifice ourselves for others to bring them cheer.

Lord Jesus, we want to experience You as the One who sacrifices Himself to bring others cheer. Thank You for coming into us as the sacrificing Lamb to energize us to sacrifice ourselves for others to bring them cheer. Amen, Lord, we come to You to drink You as the new wine. We love You, Lord, and we are so happy! We are happy to drink You as the new wine! We don’t know what selfishness means: this is a foreign language to us. We love to drink You as the new wine day by day until we are filled with You as the new wine! Amen, Lord, live in us today a sacrificing life. Give us the experiences we need for us to live one with You as the sacrificing Christ, the Christ who sacrifices Himself for God and man to be cheered. We admit, Lord, that in ourselves we don’t want to do this and we can’t do it, so we turn to You and take You as our life and as our everything! Hallelujah, the sacrificing Lamb lives in us to energize us to sacrifice ourselves for others to bring them cheer!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ray Mulligan in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The All-inclusive Christ,” ch. 5, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Laboring on the All-inclusive Christ Typified by the Good land for the Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ, for the Reality and the Manifestation of the Kingdom, and for the Bride to make Herself Ready for the Lord’s Coming (2023 Winter Training), week 5, entitled, A Land of Vines.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – The Power that Enables Us to Choose the Will of God, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – The Ministry Bearing the Mark of Death and Resurrection (2), via, Shepherding Words.
  – Recommending the LSM Radio Broadcast on Philippians here.
  – The all-inclusive Christ in the New Testament, via, Conversant Faith.
  – A Land of Vines – English – Prophesying Outline DST23 Week 05 via, Church in Chennai.
  – The True Nature of Our Relationship with the Lord Jesus, via Bibles for America blog.
  – Migration and Our Standard of Living, via, Living to Him.
  – Ministry Portion on the Vines, via Christian Students.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – “Consider Him,” and thus thy life shall be / Filled with self-sacrifice and purity; / God will work out in thee the pattern true, / And Christ’s example ever keep in view. (Hymns #656 stanza 4)
  – Every day the Lord Himself is near me, / With a special mercy for each hour; / All my cares He fain would bear and cheer me, / He whose name is Counsellor and Pow’r. / The protection of His child and treasure / Is a charge that on Himself He laid; / “As thy days, thy strength shall be in measure,” / This the pledge to me He made. (Hymns #713 stanza 2)
  – Jesus is now the land of wheat— / Incarnate, crucified. / But resurrection life is He / By barley signified. / He is a land of figs and vines— / Blood of the grape, the cheering wine. / With such supplies He satisfies— / Christ our land! (Hymns #1164 stanza 2)