Disciple the Nations by Teaching New Believers God’s Economy: the Lord is with us!

Today we go to disciple all the nations by teaching new believers God’s New Testament economy, having the assurance that the Lord is with us until the consummation of this age!

The great commission the Lord gave us is to disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the Triune God, and teaching them to observe all that He has commanded us, for the Lord is with us all the days until the consummation of the age. Amen!

On one hand, we need to disciple the nations by baptizing them into the Triune God to bring them into an organic union with Him.

On the other hand, we cannot stop here; we need to continue to disciple them by teaching them the Lord’s words and the teaching of the apostles so that they may be constituted with God and live a life for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. Amen!

The first step of discipling the nations is for us to baptize them into the Triune God so that they may be one with God organically and be immersed into the Triune God for their enjoyment.

The second step is to teach them the healthy teaching of God’s New Testament economy, all that God has revealed to us in His word.

This is all in oneness with the Lord, for He is with us until the consummation of the age.

On the day of Pentecost after the Lord’s ascension, He baptized His disciples with the Holy Spirit as power, and Peter stood with the apostles and proclaimed the gospel; the result was that many believed into the Lord Jesus and became the Lord’s disciples.

This, however, was not the end; after these were converted to Christ, the disciples continued with them day by day and from house to house, in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles.

The three thousand new converts in Jerusalem were not just saved and then left on their own until Jesus comes back; rather, they continued steadfastly in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles (Acts 2:42).

The new believers need not only to know that Jesus loves them and that one day they will be with the Lord; we need to disciple them by teaching them all that the Lord Jesus has taught us and infuse them with the teaching of the apostle.

The Lord Jesus taught His disciples during His life on earth, and the disciples were commissioned to teach the new converts all that the Lord had taught them.

May we be those who cooperate with the Lord in His heavenly ministry today not only to bring others into an organic union with the Triune God but also to teach them all that the Lord has taught us and all that the apostles have written.

First, we ourselves need to be constituted with the teaching of the apostles, and then we need to teach others also. Amen, the Lord is with us as we do this!

Discipling the Nations by Teaching the New Believers the Lord’s Words and the Apostles’ Teaching

What is the teaching that we need to teach the nations so that we may disciple them?

Matt. 28:20 says that we need to teach the repentant sinners who are immersed into the Triune God through baptism all that the Lord has commanded us.

We need to teach the new believers the Lord’s words and the apostles’ teaching.

The Lord Jesus spoke many things in the Gospels, and He continued to speak through the apostles in Acts, the Epistles and Revelation; all these are part of God’s New Testament economy, which we need to know and teach today.

The apostles’ teaching is based on what the Lord Jesus taught them, both in His ministry on earth and in His heavenly ministry.

Today in the Lord’s recovery we are under the healthy teaching of God’s New Testament economy, the teaching of the apostles, which is the teaching according to godliness.

We are not here to be just another extension of Christianity we are here to be the Lord’s testimony on the earth.

Because we have such a teaching, we have not only been brought into the union with the Triune God but also we are commissioned to teach the believers the Lord’s words and the apostles’ teaching.

We need to not only help others be regenerated and baptised but even more, come to the full knowledge of the truth.

We cannot leave the newly saved ones without teaching, and we should not be afraid of teaching them the apparently higher things and deeper things.

First, we ourselves need to remain in the healthy teaching of God’s economy, paying the price to be constituted with the healthy teaching.

We need to learn to pay the price to have the experiences of life and learn the lessons of life to have God wrought into us, and we need to be in the truth of God’s eternal economy.

In order to edify others and build up the church we need to not only know the truth but also have the experience of Christ as life, learning the lessons of life and helping others according to the lessons that we have learned.

In Acts we see that, for the beginning of the church life, gifts were needed; however, for the building up of the church and the edifying of the believers, ministry is required.

Today there seem to be many gifted persons in Christianity who know how to preach the gospel and help others get saved, but there are not many who help them to come to the full knowledge of the truth.

We need to be trained again and again to be in the healthy teaching of God’s economy, and we need the experiences of life so that we may have the ministry that edifies and builds up others.

It is very helpful and encouraging to our Christian life if we take two years to join the full-time training in our country or the country in our continent, for two years in the training will infuse us with the truth and will train us in our character, imparting a burden to teach others God’s economy and seek to experience Christ as life.

Teaching the believers to observe all that the Lord has commanded us is for the discipling of the nations.

Paul charged Timothy that, if he delays, Timothy needs to know how he ought to conduct himself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15-16).

The Lord Jesus is not with us physically with us nor are the early apostles here, and we don’t have any spiritual giants with us today; however, we all as members of the Body of Christ need to learn the lessons of life and be constituted with the truth so that we may be those teaching the new believers the Lord’s words and the teaching of the apostles.

We need to learn the truth, be constituted with the truth, and exercise to speak and teach others.

We may not have the gift of teaching or speaking eloquently, but we can teach them just as a mother teaches her children, offering a home teaching to the believers in Christ so that they may grow in life unto maturity.

As we learn the lessons of life and discern different kinds of vessels, we know what people need, and we learn to be one with the Lord to minister Christ to them.

We all need to pay the price and learn the lessons of life so that God would work Himself into us and we would be constituted with the truth today.

This is for the fulfilment of the great commission to disciple all the nations by baptizing them into the Triune God and teaching the new believers all that Christ has commanded us.

May we not repeat the pitiful and sorrowful history in Christianity today where evangelists preach the gospel and help people get saved, but because of their lack of learning and experience of life, they are not able to perfect and teach the new believers, and therefore many are lost. Oh, Lord!

May the Lord recover this matter among us and may we cooperate with Him to be those who fulfill the Lord’s commission!

Lord Jesus, we love You and we want to enjoy and experience You today. We want to pay the price to learn the lessons of life so that God may be wrought into us. Amen, Lord, work Yourself into us a little more today. Grant us the experiences we need for us to have more God in our being. Constitute us with Yourself. We give ourselves to You to enjoy You and be infused with You. Amen, Lord, we come to You in Your word to be constituted with the truth. May the Lord’s words and the teaching of the apostles be our constitution and guide our experience today. We want to be those who are filled with the truth of God’s eternal economy so that we may speak the truth to others and perfect them in the truth. Amen, Lord, may we be those who cooperate with You by teaching the new believers all that You have said to us and impart into them the healthy teaching! We want to not only baptize the nations into the Triune God but also teach them all the teaching of God’s economy so that they may grow in life and be kingdom people today for God to have a corporate expression!

The Lord is with Us until the Consummation of the Age for us to Carry out the Great Commission

Matt. 1:23 says that the name of the new King to be born of Mary, the heavenly King, was to be Emmanuel, God with us.

The Lord’s name is God with us; He is God being with us. Amen!

Our heavenly King is Emmanuel, God with us. When we gather together, when we’re gathered into the Lord’s name, He is there with us in our midst (18:20).

The Lord Jesus didn’t just come, do a wonderful work on the earth, accomplish a great redemption on the cross, and then go to heaven, leaving us here to somehow learn to please God by believing into Christ and doing what the Bible tells us to do.

Rather, He went through death and resurrection and He came to us to be with us as the Spirit of reality, and He is with us wherever we are.

He is in us and He will never leave us; He can never and will never leave His believers. Praise the Lord!

As the heavenly King who has come into us as the seed of the kingdom to make us the kingdom people, the Lord lives in us and is with us all the days until the consummation of the age (Matt. 28:20).

The gospel of Matthew proves that the Lord as Emmanuel is the heavenly King who is with us, His people, in a continuous way until He comes back. Amen!

As we are carrying out our great commission by baptizing repentant believers into the Triune God and teaching the new believers all the things in God’s New Testament economy, we have the Lord with us.

We teach the nations as He has commanded us by having His presence with us.

Wherever we are, that’s where He is, for He promised to be with us all the days until the consummation of the age.

As long as we continue with Him by being sent by Him to go and disciple the nations, He is with us.

The consummation of the age is the end of this age, which is the time of the Lord’s parousia, the Lord’s coming.

The word consummation means that there’s a process that will be brought to completion or fulfilment.

In Matt. 28:20 the consummation of the age indicates the end of this present age, the church age.

Today we are living near the end of this age, and we don’t know how much longer the Lord delays His return.

We are surely very close. There is a registration within us that, even though we do not know how long the Lord will delay, He is coming very soon.

The consummation of the age will be the three and a half years of the great tribulation (Dan. 12:4, 6-7, 9).

We pray and hope that we will not be here during that time; we have the desire that we would be raptured before this time.

The end spoken of in Matt. 24:6 is the consummation of the age, which will be the three and a half years (the last half of the seventieth week) of the great tribulation.

The consummation of the age is not the end of the world but the completion of the church age, the age of grace; this age, the age of the church, is very close to completion.

Then, there will be the millennial kingdom, so we today want to prepare ourselves for the Lord to rapture us when He returns.

The Lord promised that in His resurrection He will be with us all the days, with all authority, until the consummation of the age, that is, until the end of this age.

We want to be with the Lord and in the Lord, and we want to be one with Him as we live today.

Even more, as we come to the Lord and enjoy Him, we want to cooperate with Him to be prepared as His bride to bring Him back and end this age.

We need to realize we are here as heavenly ambassadors, the sent ones, to disciple all the nations by baptizing them into the Triune God and teaching the new believers the healthy teaching of God’s economy.

The Lord is moving all over the earth, and in particular His move today is in Europe.

We can give ourselves to the Lord and be sent by Him as His ambassadors to disciple all the nations so that this age would end and the Lord would return.

As we go, He is with us, and we enjoy His ever-gracious presence.

Lord Jesus, we love Your sweet presence with us! Thank You for being our Emmanuel, God with us. Thank You for being so present and so real with us. We believe that, whenever we turn to You in spirit, we have Your presence. We believe that, whenever we come together as the church in Your name, we have Your presence with us. Amen, Lord, thank You for being with us today as Emmanuel, God with us! Thank You for being with us all the way to the consummation of the age. We give ourselves to You today to live in Your presence and be one with You to be Your heavenly ambassadors who go in Your name with Your authority to disciple all the nations! Hallelujah, the Lord is with us as we disciple the nations baptizing them into the Triune God and teaching the new believers with the healthy teaching of God’s eternal economy! Amen, Lord, we want to carry out our great commission until You come, and we want to hasten Your return so that You would come and rapture us! Come, Lord Jesus!

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 James Lee in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1957, vol. 3, pp. 386-394, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2024 July Semiannual Training), week 3, Discipling All the Nations by Baptizing Them into the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – The book of Revelation – the consummation of God’s economy, article in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Teaching God’s economy in the home meetings, a portion from, The Furtherance of the New Way for the Lord’s Recovery, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
  – Christ Received, Experienced, and Ministered, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The disciples of Christ, discipled through Christ’s human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, a portion from, The Vital Groups, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
  – Did You Know God Has an Economy? More via, Bibles for America blog.
  – The consummation of the age and the coming of the Lord, article by Ron Kangas in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Being Faithful to Our Brothers’ Complete Ministry Concerning the Practice of the Church (1), article via, Shepherding Words.
  – The Gospel Includes New Jerusalem, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – Message 4: The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit for the Baptizing of All the Believers into One Body (2), video message via, LSM Youtube.
  – Our common faith, Our Particular Understanding of Various Christian Truths – A Statement concerning the Teachings of the Local Churches and Living Stream Ministry in Response to Dialogue with Fuller Theological Seminary, via, LC testimony.
  – We must go to disciple all the nations, a portion from, Lesson Book, Level 5: The Church—The Vision and Building Up of the Church, Chapter 23, by Witness Lee.
  – Does truth really matter? More via, Holding to Truth in Love.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – We must repent for the kingdom’s at hand; / All that we do, think, or feel, or have planned / Must be abandoned and changed in our mind; / Leave all the world and self-seeking behind… / But now the kingdom to us has been shown, / It is no less than our Jesus alone. / It is the Person of Christ in us all, / And it begins as a seed when we call. (Hymns #1301 stanzas 2 and 4)
  – God’s own Word must not be taken / Just as knowledge but as life, / Not alone God’s thought conveying, / But Himself to us as life; / Not alone God’s mind revealing, / But His Christ as life within, / Not alone the teaching giving, / But experience of Him. (Hymns #816 stanza 1)
  – “Why will ye die?” the voice of God is calling, / “Why will ye die?” re-echo in His name: / Jesus hath died to save from death appalling, / Life and salvation therefore go proclaim. / “All pow’r is given unto me, / All pow’r is given unto me, / Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel, / And lo, I am with you alway.” (Hymns #917 stanza 3 and chorus)