Experiencing Christ Teachings

In this world mankind is hungry and has no satisfaction. In this world mankind is troubled and has no peace. The scene/part in this chapter portrays all of humanity living in the world corrupted by Satan. They are not living on the land created by God. In the world corrupted by Satan there is no real satisfaction; there is always hunger. Neither is there any peace, for the wind and the waves are always on the sea making trouble for man.

In the book of John we see the Son’s fourfold testimony: the testimony of John the Baptist (vv. 32-35); the testimony of the Son’s work (v. 36); the testimony of the Father (vv. 37-38); and the testimony of the Scriptures (vv. 39-47). It is possible to have these four witnesses and yet not have Christ Himself.

Although God’s work in creation was finished (Gen. 2:1-3), the Father and the Son were still working for redemption and building (John 5:17, 19-20). The religious Jews kept the Sabbath of creation. They did not know that because of man’s fall the rest of that Sabbath was broken. Neither did they know that the Father and the Son were still working for fallen man’s redemption in order to fulfill God’s original purpose, which is the building of God’s eternal habitation. What God did was the old creation. What the Father and the Son are doing is the new creation through redemption for God’s building.

There was the means of healing in the law-keeping Jewish religion, but it did not profit the impotent man at the pool, because he had no strength to fulfill its requirements. Religion’s law-keeping depends upon man’s effort, man’s doing, and man’s make-up. Since man is impotent, religion’s law-keeping becomes inadequate. The holy city, the holy temple, the holy feast, the holy Sabbath, the angels, Moses, and the Holy Scriptures—all of these were the good things of that religion, but they could do nothing for this impotent man. Until Jesus Came.

The purpose of creation is to produce a receptacle/Vessel to receive God as life. All the living things on the earth are for man. Man, for whom all these things are, is for God, receiving God and fulfilling His purpose.

Without creation there would have been no way for God to be incarnated. Creation prepared the way and afforded Him the means to be incarnated.

John 3 Verse 30 says that Christ must increase and that we all must decrease. Why? Because Christ is unlimited and all-inclusive. These verses reveal an unlimited Christ. He was the little Jesus who was born in a manger and raised in Nazareth in the house of a poor carpenter. He had no outward beauty or attractiveness and He was very limited Isa.53. Nevertheless, He is all-inclusive, immeasurable. He is higher than the heavens and broader than the universe. See Ephesians 3:20 He is everything, and everything is for Him. Let us read these verses and see what they unfold of the immeasurable Christ.

In the eyes of God, we all have become serpents. Like the ancient Israelites who became serpents and needed a brass serpent to be lifted up as their substitute, we also needed Christ to die on the cross as our substitute. On the cross Christ was not only the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world (1:29), but He was also in the form of the serpent that He might deal with our serpentine nature and destroy the old serpent. When Christ was lifted up on the cross, the serpentine nature within fallen man was dealt with.

In the book of Exodus, which is a book of pictures, we have a remarkable picture of baptism. The New Testament speaks in various places regarding the significance of baptism. However it is exceedingly helpful to ponder the picture of baptism in the book of Exodus.

Regardless how many times a person could be born out of his mother’s womb, he would still be flesh because flesh begets flesh. So, the Lord told Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh” (3:6). Flesh here denotes the natural man with the natural life. Regardless of how many times we could be born of our parents, we still would be a natural man with a natural life. It can never change our nature. To be born anew is not to be born again of our parents, but to be born of God the Spirit that we may have His divine life with His divine nature, a life with a nature absolutely different from our natural life with its nature.

Life is for God’s temple. In other words, life is for God’s building. The Reason why the Lord is changing water into wine, we saw the principle of life, that is, to change death into life. Now, in the case of the dealing with the temple, we see the goal, the purpose of life, that is, to build the house of God. So we emphasize Life & Building in our messages