CHAPTER ONE

HOW GOD RAISES KEY WORKERS TO FORM GOSPEL TEAMS

 PRAYER: Oh Lord, I pray, the light of Your word should shine in our hearts. Let Your light cause us to see and understand this crucial aspect of Your church for the furtherance of the gospel. Provide a thorough answer to every question, satisfy every longing heart, and fill every hungry soul. Strengthen all whose hearts are committed to Your work in this generation and are willing to render total service to You. Oh Lord, let Your church grow both qualitatively, and quantitatively. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for an answered prayer. AMEN!

   Every member of the body of Christ is gifted and  responsible for the building up of the church. Among all the members of the church, there are brothers who are entrusted with some special works of stewardship (Colossians 1:25). Moreover, there are other who have devoted themselves to rendering vital services for the fulfilment of the Lord’s work (First Corinthians 16:15; Philippians 2:29 to 30). Such brothers the Bible called “workers or ministers of the gospel” (Second Corinthians 6:1). Due to the services they render, they make profound contribution to the building up of the church than the rest of the saints.

THE LORD’S WORK AND ITS ADVANCEMENT THROUGHOUT THE AGE

   From the beginning of the world till now, the Lord has been working. Throughout every generation, the Lord has been working. The Lord has been working from the generation of Adam, and He is still working now in our generation. If the second coming of Christ delays, the Lord will continue His work even in the generations yet to come. The time the Lord will rest from His work is when He will cast Satan, the devil and that serpent of old into the lake of fire, and will melt the earth and the heavens, and will replace them with a new heaven and a new earth (Second Peter 3:10 to 13;Revelation chapter 21).

   Behold, the Lord our God is a God of progression; His work has been advancing from time to time. For this reason, what He does in one era differs from what He does in another era. Reading through the Book of Genesis to the Book of Revelation, we will see a lot of eras and the stages of the advancement of God’s work. Every era comes with the major work the Lord accomplished, making the work of God in each era peculiar to that era.

   In the era of Noah, the Lord’s work was to eliminate wickedness on the earth and raise a God-fearing generation. In the era of Abraham, the Lord’s work was to have a nation and people for Himself among the nations. In the era of Moses, God’s people were in slavery, and the Lord’s work in that era was to deliver His people from captivity and lead them to the Promised Land. When we come to the era of Joshua, God’s people were already on the border of the Promised Land and the Lord’s work was to drive out the habitant of the Land and divide it to His people. When we move on to the era of the Judges, the Lord’s work was to rescue His people from their oppression and keep them in His way. In the era of Samuel, God began to speak in a new way. From the era of the kings to the birth of Jesus, the Lord made the way for the building of the temple and the coming of the Messiah. In the era of John the Baptist, the Lord’s work was to prepare the way for Jesus’ public ministry (John 1:23; Acts 19:4). During the ministry of our Lord Jesus on earth, God’s work was the death and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus in order to make atonement for man, and so also make it possible for sinners to be begotten of Him.

   Now, after the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus till the end of the world, the Lord’s work is to build His Church and prepare her as His bride for His second coming. This is the current work the Lord is doing in the universe – the building of the church and the preparation of the bride. The New Testament refers to this work as the present truth (Second Peter 1:12).