The all-inclusive Christ we are propagating by being His witnesses on earth is the Leader and the Savior, the Son of Man, and even God Himself who purchased the church with His own blood.
What we are today is not preachers but witnesses. God doesn’t want people who merely teach others about the Bible but some who are His witnesses, who see His appearing daily in a fresh way, and they testify to others concerning the Christ they have seen and enjoyed.
Our testimony as witnesses of Christ is a living testimony. As those living in the continuation of the book of Acts, we need to have the Lord’s appearing and witness Him to others.
The Christ that the disciples witnessed is the resurrected, ascended, and all-inclusive Christ.
We need to daily keep the Lord in front of our eyes, seeing Him and having a vision of Him, so that we may overflow to others with what we have seen and enjoyed of Him.
We need to be brought up to the standard in the Bible concerning our gospel preaching. In Acts we see that the disciples didn’t just preach the Christ who died for man’s sins, but they witnessed the Christ who went through resurrection and entered into ascension, and this Christ is all-inclusive.
The more we see of Christ, the more we will testify of Him. There’s a great shortage of witnesses of Christ on earth, witnesses who contact the Lord, who have a fresh appearing of Christ every day, and who testify of Him to others.
We believe that the Lord has raised up His recovery to fill up this lack. We are here not only to testify of the Christ who became flesh and who died on the cross to redeemed us.
We are here to read the entire word of God, be filled with God’s word, and enjoy and experience Christ according to His word, and then testify of Him before others.
We are here to enjoy and testify the Christ who resurrected and became a life-giving Spirit, who was begotten to be the Firstborn Son of God, and who regenerated us to be the many members of His body.
We are here to testify of the Christ who was ascended to be exalted by God, enthroned by Him, inaugurated officially to be both Lord and Christ, and who was given the lordship and the headship over all things to the church.
We are here to enjoy and experience the all-inclusive Christ in all His wonderful and detailed aspects as revealed in God’s word, and then minister Christ to others so that they may be regenerated and enter into the kingdom of God. Amen!
Today we want to see more aspects of Christ as the all-inclusive One as revealed in the book of Acts, namely, Christ as the Leader and the Savior, Christ as the Son of Man, and Christ as God Himself.
The All-inclusive Christ we Witness is the Leader and the Savior
Praise the Lord, God has raised Jesus, who was crucified by the Jewish people, and exalted Him to His right hand as Leader and the Savior (see Acts 5:30-31).
The apostles boldly declared to the people that what they testified was that God exalted Jesus to be the Leader and the Savior, so that He may give repentance and forgiveness of sins.
We need to know the all-inclusive Christ in the aspect of being the Leader and the Savior. God exalted the man Jesus as the highest Leader, the Prince, the ruler of the kings to rule over the world, and the Savior to save God’s chosen people (see Rev. 1:5; 19:16; Acts 5:31).
The fact that Christ is the Leader is related to His authority, and Him being the Savior relates to His salvation. As the Leader and the Savior, Christ rules sovereignly over the earth with His authority that the environment might be fit for God’s chosen people to receive His salvation (cf. Acts 17:26-27; John 17:2).
He arranges things in a sovereign way in the life and circumstances of people so that they may return to God, repent, and receive His salvation.
He sets the boundaries of men so that they may seek Him, grope for Him, and find Him, even though He’s not far away from each one of us – He can be found and received simply by calling on His name.
As the Leader, Christ arranges things, situations, people, and environments to lead us to Himself, and as the Savior, He is saving us from our sins and saving us to the uttermost so that we may live in the kingdom of God and propagate Him on earth. Hallelujah!
We need to see Christ and experience Him as our Leader and our Savior, and we need to be His witnesses on earth, testifying of this all-inclusive One who leads all men to Himself and saves them from the gutter-most to the uttermost!
Lord Jesus, you are our Leader and our Savior. You are the One arranging the circumstances and things so that Your chosen people may return to You and be saved, and so that we may be much more saved in Your life. Thank You Lord. Unveil us to see You in Your all-inclusiveness so that we may appreciate You as our Leader and Savior and be Your witnesses on earth. Amen, Lord, we want to cooperate with You for Your propagation on earth by announcing You as the Leader and the Savior anointed and appointed by God!
Witnessing the All-inclusive Christ as the Son of Man Standing at the Right Hand of God
In Acts 7:56, as Stephen was being stoned to death, he lifted his eyes and saw Christ as the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.
We all know that Christ is God becoming man to be our Savior, and through His death on the cross He has redeemed us. But here we see that even after His resurrection and ascension, Christ still is the Son of Man at the right hand of God.
This verse in Acts unveils that Christ is the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God to be the comfort, encouragement, and strength to the one martyred for Him.
When the stones were being thrown at him and he was being killed, what Stephen needed to see was not just God but a man, a man who knows what suffering is, a man who understands the persecution he’s under.
Christ as the Son of Man shared in our weakness, He feels our pain, and He understands us. And for the sake of His brother on earth who was being persecuted and put to death, Christ as the Son of Man didn’t just sit to rest and enjoy His accomplished work, but He stood up to encourage him, comfort him, and strengthen him.
This was a great vindication and encouragement to the persecuted one.
Christ usually referred to in ascension as sitting at the right hand of God (Matt. 26:64; Heb. 1:3, 13), but Stephen saw Him standing at the right hand of God.
How wonderful it is to know, enjoy, see, and experience Christ as the Son of Man, the One who knows our weakness, feels our pain, and appears to us to strengthen us, encourage us, and comfort us!
Stephen saw the ascended Christ as the Son of Man; this indicates that the Christ who is in the heavens still has His humanity; He still possesses His human nature.
Some may claim that Jesus came and became a man, but that after His death He put off humanity, but the Bible clearly tells us that Jesus Christ is a God-man, possessing the divine and the human nature, and He is now in heavens with humanity as the Son of Man. Hallelujah!
The all-inclusive Christ, who is the Leader and the Savior, is also the Son of Man, having humanity and divinity, and He is at the right hand of God. Praise the Lord Jesus! It is this One that we enjoy, experience, and testify.
We all need to pray much regarding this, asking the Lord to give us the experiences we need to be His witnesses on earth, the witnesses of Christ as the Son of Man.
Praise You Lord for being the Son of Man who is right now at the right hand of God. Hallelujah, Christ as the Leader and the Savior is a God-man who has both divinity and humanity to both save us and comfort us. Lord, we come to You as we are, with all our weaknesses, problems, and situations. You as the Son of Man knows what we go through, and You understand. Comfort us, Lord, and encourage us, so that we may be strengthened to go on with You and be Your witnesses on earth.
Witnessing Christ as God, the One who Purchased the Church with His own Blood
The Christ we witness and testify is God; He is the Purchaser of the church, having obtained the church with His own blood (see Acts 20:28).
Paul was telling the elders and responsible ones to take heed to themselves and to all the flock, among whom the Holy Spirit placed them as overseers to shepherd the church of God, which He obtained through His own blood.
It is Christ who died on the cross to redeem us by His blood, but here we see that God purchased the church with His own blood.
This shows that God secured, purchased, and redeemed the church with His own blood, and Christ is God. God’s own blood is the blood of Jesus Christ (1 John 1:7); the Lord Jesus is God. Hallelujah!
Because we are sinners, we need redemption; the One who can accomplish redemption needs to have genuine human blood, for we are fallen human beings. God became man, and Jesus Christ died for us on the cross to redeem all fallen human beings.
The Lord is the Son of God, even God Himself. Therefore, the blood He shed for us is both human blood for redemption, and it also has the element of eternity to ensure the eternal efficacy of this blood.
Christ as a genuine man died and shed His blood to purchase the church, and this blood is the blood of God, God’s own blood. Hallelujah!
Jesus Christ as the God-man died on the cross for our redemption, and His blood is genuine, perfect, and eternally effective! God obtained the church through His own blood, for He is the Purchaser of the church! This is truly wonderful!
We need to see Christ as such a One – Christ is God, and He purchased the church with His own blood. We as the church have been redeemed and purchased by God with His own blood!
So now we can apply the blood of Jesus to our conscience to deal with sins, and we can come forward to Him to be saved to the uttermost! The Christ we witness of is God Himself, and He has purchased us with His blood.
Wow, Christ is God! Jesus Christ, a man, has become God, to be the One who purchased the church with His own blood! Thank You Lord Jesus for becoming a perfect and complete God-man with genuine human blood for our redemption! Praise the Lord for the blood of God which purchased the church! Wow! Lord, open our eyes to see Jesus Christ as God, the Purchaser of the church. Make us Your witnesses in this aspect of Your all-inclusiveness!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 292 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Propagating the Resurrected, Ascended, and All-inclusive Christ as the Development of the Kingdom of God (2018 fall ITERO), week 3, Being Witnesses of the Resurrected, Ascended, and All-inclusive Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Son of Man, His incarnation / Opened first the tale of grace; / Son of Man, in new creation / Leader of a chosen race! / Well may glory, well may glory, / Give to Him the honored place! (Hymns #143)
# In heaven for us He’s the glorified man, / The Forerunner entered, fulfilling God’s plan; / Man into God bringing and making him one / With God in the heav’nlies, in Him as the Son. (Hymns #536)
# We’re the Lord’s peculiar treasure, / Purchased by His precious blood. / He has put His seal upon us, / We are those marked out by God. (Hymns #1121)
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