NOURISHING PEOPLE WITH THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST IN HIS FULL MINISTRY IN THE THREE STAGES (1)
When we go to visit people, we do not want to merely tell them something but to nourish them with Christ as their food…John 6:57 reveals that Jesus is edible: “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” Of course, we live by what we eat. Actually, the Bible begins with the thought of God’s desire for man to eat the tree of life. God created a perfect man, Adam, but God put this man in front of the tree of life. He did not put man in front of a book teaching him many things, including how to live a marriage life. God, after creating a perfect man, brought that man into a garden, which included the tree of life.
Man needs to eat only one thing—the tree of life. This tree signifies Christ. When Christ was incarnated, He said, “I am…the life” ( John 14:6 ); He also said, “I am the vine” ( 15:5a ). He is the life and He is the vine tree, so He is the tree of life. Christ is not only our Savior and Redeemer but also our life tree. He is our food so that we can be nourished with Him. When we contact people, we should always endeavor to present some spiritual food to them, not to teach them with mere knowledge. Then they will be nourished. Ephesians 3:8 says that Christ’s riches are unsearchable, or untraceable. The New Testament age reveals an unsearchably rich Christ in His full ministry in three stages.
The Stage of Incarnation
First, Christ was incarnated to be a man. Then He lived on this earth for thirty-three and a half years. He died on the cross, and His crucifixion ended His stage of incarnation.
The Stage of Inclusion
His crucifixion ushered Him into another stage. After His death He resurrected and entered into the stage of inclusion. In this stage Christ is the all-inclusive Spirit. He is now God, man, and also the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit ( 1 Cor. 15:45b ; 2 Cor. 3:17 ).
The Stage of Intensification
According to the flesh, Christ was the last Adam. Then as the last Adam, He became the life-giving Spirit. The book of Revelation shows that as the life-giving Spirit, He became the sevenfold intensified Spirit ( 1:4 ; 3:1 ; 4:5 ; 5:6 ). We call the above three stages of Christ the three i’s: incarnation, inclusion, and intensification.
THE FULL MINISTRY OF CHRIST
The full ministry of Christ includes all the works of Christ’s accomplishments. Christ accomplishes so much by His ministry, His service, from His incarnation to the consummation of the New Jerusalem. The New Testament begins with Christ’s incarnation and ends with the New Jerusalem. Matthew presents the birth of Christ, His incarnation, and Revelation presents the New Jerusalem, the holy city. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups”, ch. 12, pp. 157-162)
The church in Zamboanga 