The Secret to have the Vital-Group Church Life – Feasting on Christ as Peace Offering

As those who enjoy Christ as the peace offering, we need to learn the secret of how to have the vital-group church life as a house of feasting, where Christ and us (His lovers) can have rest and satisfaction.

Christ is our peace offering – He is the peace between God and God’s people for their co-enjoyment in fellowship for us to have the vital-group church life and to consummate in the New Jerusalem as the ultimate peace offering.

How can we have Christ as our peace? It is by enjoying Christ; when we enjoy Christ, we have peace. When should we enjoy Christ, and how? We should enjoy Christ today; we should forget about yesterday and not worry about tomorrow, but just give ourselves to enjoy Christ today, even right now.

As we enjoy Christ, He becomes the peace between God and us for our co-enjoyment in fellowship.

How does Christ become our peace? He becomes our peace by our laying our hands on Him; we identify ourselves with Him, and we are one with Him in spirit.

Our fellowship with Christ is not a matter of replacement – He doesn’t replace us, but He and us become one, we and Him are identified, we are one spirit with Him. So we need to learn the secret of enjoying Christ as our peace offering; we need to enjoy the peace of God, which surpasses every man’s understanding (Phil. 4:12, 7).

Christ gives us peace – He gives Himself to us as peace, and we are learning the secret of how to take Christ as life, how to live Christ, magnify Christ, and gain Christ in any environment and in any matter.

How can we learn this secret? It is by talking to the Lord in everything, conferring with Him about all things, and by letting our requests made known to God.

We need to enter into the sanctuary of God – we need to enter into our mingled spirit to contact the Lord and be in the church meetings to have His present speaking and receive His enlightenment concerning our real situation and condition.

Drawing near to God is good to us, and learning the secret of living Christ is not something difficult; we simply need to practice speaking with the Lord constantly, and then spontaneously and effortlessly we will live Christ.

The result of us practicing to fellowship with God in prayer is that the peace of God is infused into us for our enjoyment as the counterpoise to troubles and the antidote to anxiety, so that Christ as our forbearance can be known to all men.

Yes, anxiety comes, and yes, Satan will bring about many things we should worry about…but we can let our forbearance be known to all men by bringing all our needs and requests to the Lord, knowing that He cares for us.

When we open to the Lord again and again concerning our requests, making them known to Him with prayer and petition with thanksgiving, the peace of Christ will guard our heart, and we will make our forbearance known to all men.

Hallelujah, we have the antidote to anxiety: we can bring everything to the Lord, open to Him, and make our requests known to Him, and toward God we will have peace, and toward men we will have forbearance, which is Christ Himself lived out in us!

Learning the Secret to have the Vital-Group Church Life, Feasting on Christ as Peace Offering

In the Gospel of John we see an initial and a consummate step of the peace offering, which is Christ Himself. The initial step can be seen in John 12, where the Lord was invited to the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and He had a feast there with them and with His disciples.

If we look at that picture, it is so wonderful: God was there in the person of Jesus, Mary was there sitting at the Lord’s feet and listening to His word, Lazarus was there testifying of the Lord’s resurrection life, and Martha was there serving God with all her heart.

In John 3-11 we see that Christ as life meets the need of every man’s case, and in John 12 we see the issue a house of feasting.

We need to learn the secret of how to have the vital-group church life as a house of feasting – a feast of Christ as the peace offering – where Christ and His lovers can have rest and satisfaction.

This kind of church life is produced by the resurrection life (John 11:43-44) – see Lazarus being raised from the dead. This kind of church life is composed of cleansed sinners (the feast was in the house of Simon the leper, a cleansed sinner; Mark 14:3).

This kind of church life is outwardly poor and afflicted (John 12:1, Bethany means house of affliction, yet here the Lord said that He gives us His peace – see John 16:33). In the vital-group church life there are more sisters than brothers, and here we have many functions.

In the vital-group church life we have the functions of diligently serving the Lord (Martha), testifying of the resurrection life (Lazarus), and poring out our absolute love for the Lord (Mary).

We may think that we are Mary, loving the Lord to the uttermost and just listening at His feet, or we may think that our portion is just to serve practically with all our ability.

But actually we all are Martha-Lazarus-Mary, that is, we are saints who serve practically, live and testify of the resurrection life, and love the Lord absolutely.

In such an atmosphere of love, where we all are cleansed sinners who serve the Lord, love Him, listen to Him, and enjoy His resurrection life, there is peace, enjoyment, and satisfaction.

This kind of vital-group church life where we feast on Christ as the peace offering should be our daily church life. The fulfilment of the peace offering was after the Lord’s resurrection, after He was offered to God as every kind of offering; then, the Lord came to His disciples and told them, Peace be to you (John 20:21).

Christ came to us as grace; when Christ came, grace came (see John 1:14). Then, at the end of John, Christ offered Himself on the cross as the reality of all the offerings. He came as grace, then He became the peace offering to us.

When He met with His disciples after His resurrection, that meeting was a feast, and that feast was a peace offering.

Today when we meet together, we can take Christ and offer Him as our sin offering, trespass offering, burnt offering, and meal offering; eventually, when all the offerings are added together, we also enjoy the peace offering for our satisfaction and His satisfaction. This should be our church life today, a life of feasting on Christ as the peace offering.

Lord Jesus, we want to learn the secret to have the vital-group church life, a life of feasting on Christ as our peace offering. May our church life be a house of feasting, a house where all the saints feast on Christ as the peace offering. May our church life be a filled with rest and satisfaction with Christ, in peace with God, and with Christ as the reality of all the offerings. Hallelujah, the church life is produced by the resurrection life, is composed of cleansed sinners, and is full of feasting in and with the presence of the Lord as our peace offering!

Our Enjoyment of Christ as our Peace Offering Consummates in the New Jerusalem

What is the consummation of our enjoyment and experience of Christ as the peace offering?

Firstly we enjoy Christ as our peace offering when we believe into the Lord, and we are at peace with God and with man. Then, we come to meet with the saints and, together with all the saints, we enjoy Christ as our peace offering, and we live a vital-group church life of feasting on Christ as the peace offering.

Our enjoyment of Christ as our peace offering in our daily life and in the church life consummates in the New Jerusalem as the ultimate peace offering (Rev. 21:2).

Jerusalem means “the foundation of peace”. Jerusalem is something grounded, founded, and safeguarded in peace. The vital-group church life as a life of feasting on Christ as the peace offering will consummate in the New Jerusalem, the city of peace.

Our God is the God of peace (Phil. 4:9; 1 Thes. 5:23), and we enjoy the peace of God (Phil. 4:7). God is our peace. Christ Himself is our peace (Eph. 2:14). We have been grounded in peace, the peace of God. This peace is not something outward, but something inward.

The Lord told us, Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you (see John 14:27).

He also told us, These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have affliction, but take courage, I have overcome the world.

The Lord gave us His peace, and He left us His peace; therefore, in the church life today we should live in peace. Actually, the Lord Himself is here among us as our peace. And the consummation of our experience and enjoyment of Christ as the peace offering is the New Jerusalem, the city of peace.

The New Jerusalem will be solidly grounded and safeguarded in the Triune God as peace and safety, and we will enjoy the Triune God as our peace forever. This is our destiny.

What we enjoy today in the vital-group church life is a foretaste of the full taste. We enjoy Christ as our peace offering today, and for eternity we will become the New Jerusalem as the eternal peace offering, and the whole New Jerusalem will be an entity of peace.

Lord Jesus, keep us enjoying You as our peace offering today in the vital-group church life. Keep us enjoying You in the city of peace, the church of God. Thank You for giving us Your peace. Your words give us peace, and we enjoy You as our peace. Oh Lord, may we enjoy You as our peace today in the church life until for eternity we will enjoy You as the consummate peace offering, the New Jerusalem!

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, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1982, vol. 1, “Experiencing Christ as the Offerings for the Church Meetings,” chs. 12-13, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (1), week 10, Christ as the Peace between God and God’s People for Their Co-enjoyment in Fellowship to Have the Vital-group Church Life and to Consummate in the New Jerusalem as the Ultimate Peace Offering.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Mary poured out her love offering / To many such love was a waste. / Throughout all of the centuries / Such lovers Your sweetness do taste. (Song on, Mary poured out her love offering)
  # Keep the order in the Body, / There to function in Thy will, / Ever serving, helping others, / All Thy purpose to fulfill. (Hymns #840)
  # Oh, may I know this resurrection life, / In every kind of death its pow’r outpoured, / In my experience ever realize / This life is nought but Christ my living Lord. (Hymns #639)