Scripture Reading: Rev. 4:2; 3:21; 5:6; John 1:4; 10:10; 11:25; 1 John 1:1-2
Ⅰ
The ministry of the apostle John was a mending ministry, a ministry of mending, or restoring, what had been damaged after the time of Paul's com- pleting ministry; John mended the broken spiritual net, perfecting it and making it stronger—John 21:11; 1 John 1:1-2; 2:7-8.
Ⅱ
Through the mending ministry of John, we receive a vision of the ascended and enthroned Christ as the center of God's universal administration—Rev. 4:2; 3:21; 5:6:
A
We need to see a vision of the throne of God as the center of God's administra- tion—4:2; 5:1.
B
Christ in His ascension has been enthroned to execute God's administration, His governmental operation—Heb. 12:2; Rev. 3:21:
１
Christ's ascension was for His enthronement for God's administration; Christ is sitting on the throne of the divine administration.
２
The Lamb, the Redeemer, the One slain for our sins, is now on the throne, carrying out God's administration over the universe—5:6.
３
As the Lamb with the seven eyes, the seven Spirits of God, He is carrying out God's administration for the accomplishment of God's economy—Eph. 1:10.
C
The enthroned Christ is the Ruler of the kings of the earth—Rev. 1:5:
１
The affairs of the nations are under Christ's rulership.
２
If we study history in light of the Bible, we will see that the human history has been under the hand of Christ as the Ruler of the kings.
Ⅲ
The ministry of the apostle John was a mending ministry of life—John 1:4; 10:10; 11:25; 1 John 1:1-2; 5:11-13, 16:
A
The Gospel of John is a book of life—1:4; 3:15-16, 36; 5:24; 11:25; 14:6; 20:31:
１
The life that John speaks of is the eternal, uncreated life; this life is actually the Triune God Himself—5:26; 11:25; 6:63.
２
The Lord Jesus came that we may have life abundantly; through His death and resurrection He released this life and imparted it into us—10:10; 12:24; 19:34; 20:17, 31.
B
This life is a wonderful person, indescribable in human language; when John referred to Him in 1 John 1:1, he could only say, “That which was from the begin- ning,” speaking of the One who was with the Father from eternity and was man- ifested to the apostles, who declared Him as life—vv. 2-3.
C
Today's broken situation among the believers and in the churches can be mended only by the life-giving mending ministry; only life can mend—5:16:
１
There are “holes” in us and many broken things that need to be mended.
２
The holes and breaks must be mended by life in love; we can be mended only by the ministry of life—2:25; 3:16.
D
The central requirement for the building up of the church today is the mending ministry of life; it is in this ministry that we experience Christ as our life and become the dwelling place of God—John 2:19-22; 11:25; 14:2-3.
Ⅳ
As believers in Christ and children of God, we not only have eternal life and may experience eternal life, but we can minister this life to other mem- bers of the Body of Christ—1 John 5:11-16:
A
To minister is to have the outflow of life—John 19:34; 7:37-39:
１
Life is the content of God and the flowing out of God; God's content is God's being, and God's flowing out is the impartation of Himself as life to us—Eph. 4:18; Rev. 22:1.
２
Having the outflow of life requires that we be one with Christ in His life- releasing death; this is to be identified with the smitten Christ, typified by the smitten rock—John 19:34; Exo. 17:6.
B
If we would minister life to others, we need to be aware of the attack upon the church by death—Matt. 16:18; Rom. 5:17, 21:
１
What is of God is characterized by life, and what is of Satan, by death; in the church everything that issues from God is life, and everything that issues from Satan is death—John 1:4; 10:10; 11:25; Heb. 2:14.
２
The attack upon the church will come from death, from the gates of Hades— Matt. 16:18.
３
Satan's greatest fear with regard to the church is her resistance to his power of death—2 Tim. 1:10.
４
The eternal life within us can overcome death both in ourselves and in other members of the church—1 John 5:11-13, 16.
５
We need to experience and enjoy the eternal life within us, and we need to minister this life to others by being a channel through which eternal life can flow—John 7:37-39; Phil. 1:24-25.