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The Pattern Shown in God's Word of a Proper Corporate Meeting

(Overcomer Wu)

“Therefore if the whole church comes together in one place...

Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret.” -- 1 Corinthians 14:23a, 26-27

“Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge. But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged.” -- 1 Corinthians 14:29-31

“But this you have, that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans which I also hate." -- Revelations 2:6

Allow me to start this discourse off by introducing to you a most important principle of the proper interpretation of God's Word -- otherwise known as Hermaneutics -- established through the ages by the most fundamental of all Christian leaders and adhered to by most, if not all, of fundamentalist of Christians. By the way, the word “fundamentalist” may have negative connotations in the worldly circles especially when referring to the Islamic fundamentalists, but among Christians, it is quite the opposite, because they are the ones who uphold Word of God as our Constitution and strictly adhere to the teachings of the Bible and not dare to deviated from it. Therefore, as Christians, we want to be known, and practice in reality, as the “fundamentalists.” Back to my point about Hermaneutics: one of the laws of Hermaneutics is that for us to practice something in the Bible with certainty, we need to have not only example passages, but also teaching passages to back our teachings and practices. For instance, in John chapter 9, we see the Lord Jesus anointed the eyes of the blind with His saliva and ask the blind to go wash in the pool of Siloam, and he was healed. Obviously, that is an example passage that if we were to replicate without the Lord's exact same directions and anointing through us would not yield any positive results, because that was an example of how the Lord Jesus healed that particular blind man in that particular way. He healed other blind man by simply touching their eyes, and other means. Thus, example passages alone in the Bible is not meant to be practiced by all the Christians or churches when it comes to church practices.

With that little introductory word on one of the major rules of Hermaneutics, let us consider before the Lord what is the proper practice when the whole church gather together in one place. We may be surprised that contrary to the common practice among Christianity of one speaker system and all the rest sit as laity listening to the one speaker, of which there are some example passages only, but not a single clear teaching passage to support such practice. And the example passages like the ones we see in the book of Acts are mostly the apostle passing by a church to visit, and was given the whole forum to speak because of the shortage of time of his visit. (By the way, Watchman Nee also pointed out in his book The Church and the Work that when an apostle resides at a certain locality, he then becomes merely an elder of that locality and not an apostle.) Praise the Lord! On the other hand, there are clear teaching passages in the Bible specifically about how we ought to meet when “the whole church comes/gathers together in one place” (1 Cor 14:23a) in 1 Corinthians chapter 14! And it is laid out very simply in this passage which pretty much speak for itself. First, there are opportunities given for the different gifts to function: “Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret.” Here it mentioned a representative list of gifts from teaching, a psalm, a revelation, a tongue (which we think might not be applicable to us since among us we don't practice the so-called “spekaing-in-tongue.” But actually, speaking-in-tongue in the Bible is just speaking in another known human language like on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. All the listeners heard what were shared by the twelve apostles in their own native tongue.

Then when it comes to prophesy, which can be said to be a message given by the Lord through a member of His Body, it says in verse 29 that there are also opportunities given for “two or three” to speak, because it states: “Let two or three prophets speak...” Moreover, verse 31 says, “For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged.” This is implying that there are not usually just two or three gifted with the gift of prophesy who takes turns, but it plainly states, “for you can all prophesy one by one.” Thus, the pattern in God's Word, our Constitution, is exceedingly clear that in a corporate gathering when the “whole gathers together in one place,” there is not only one speaker, who speaks as a prophet, but two or three. In addition, there are also opportunities given for other gifts to function as well.

Now among those who promote the one-speaker system, some have also quoted the example of Acts 2:42: “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” They said that based on this verse, there are 4 types of meetings being proposed: the teaching of the apostles meeting, the fellowship meeting around the apostle's teachings, the breaking of bread (the Lord's supper/Lord's Table) meeting, and the prayer meeting. And they interpret literally that the teaching of the apostles as a meeting dedicated only for the apostles to speak. (Now, whether or not there are any who are truly qualified to be called apostle is one thing. And I also pointed out earlier that according to Watchman Nee's teaching which is strongly based on God's Word that when an apostle resides in one place, he becomes at best merely an elder.) However, I would point out that the apostle's teaching in this passage is actually none other than the Word of God. Allow me to support this proper interpretation. First, I'm sure we would all agree that at the time of the Acts of the apostles (or Acts of the Holy Spirit), the Bible was not yet completed. In fact, one of the apostle Paul's ministry is to “complete the Word of God.” (Col. 1:25b). And in the very record of the book of Acts, we also saw a few times that the term “and the Word of God grew and multiplied” such as Act 6:7, 12:24, 19:20. This proves that the speaking of God through the apostles at that time were mainly/partly for the completing of the Bible.) Indeed, their speaking and action became the content of the book of Acts, and the epistles written by the various apostles comprised the rest of the New Testament after the 4 Gospels. However, now that we have the completed Word of God, the Bible, what we need to teach and fellowship around is focused on the Bible and NOT the teaching of any particular individuals' or even the ministry of some apostles today. If that were the case, what are those localities who do not have an “apostle”, and there are many which do not have a so-called “apostle,” going to fellowship about? We have learnt from the mistake of the past that a certain person's ministry books came to substitute for fellowship and sharing on the Word of God itself to the extent that they eventually were ask that they need not bring their Bible, but only a certain book written or shared and transcribed into a book by this particular apostle only.

Second, Acts 2:42 is also just merely an example passage and not a teaching passage. It only gives us an account of what they did: "And they were continuing stedfastly in ..." And 4 verses later in verse 46, it confirms to us that it is an example passage or else we would have to break bread from house to house like they did. But we certainly don't practice that unless the church started in a small group and fits in a house. Then that essentially becomes their meeting place where they break bread.

Furthermore, we also have the clear teaching in the Bible on how we ought NOT to practice in a gathering of a church from the Lord's own mouth (as opposed to indirectly through one of His servants) to be conveyed to both the church in Ephesus and the church in Pergamos concerning the teaching and the practice of the Nicolaitans. To answer who are the Nicolaitans and what is the relevance to the topic under discussion, we have to know who are the Nicolaitans. First we have to understand the what is the meaning of the Greek word Nicolaitai used here in Revelation 2:6 and 2:15. This word is comprised of “Nikao” which means "to conquer" or "to climb above others"; and "Laos" which means "the common people or laity or the laymen." Therefore, combining the 2 parts of the word "Nicolaitans" yield the meaning of those who seek to conquer/rule over the others/common people or to climb above the laymen or to conquer/oppress the laymen.

Nicolaitans are those who esteem themselves above the other believers by either seeking to dictate to others what they ought to do and to seize to control the meetings and the saints in ways that are favorable to them either politically or personally. Or giving the Nicolaitans the benefit of the doubt, that they might simply be carry out what they consider to be God's leading; however, in an oppressive manner by exerting their power to conquer and suppress any other feelings, however Scriptural or valid, in deference of their own concepts of God's will and God's ways. The Lord not only condemns the teachings and actions of the Nicolaitans, but He "hates," which is a word rarely used by God, the works of the Nicolaitans, as the verse quoted above clearly stated. There aren't that many things mentioned explicitly in the Bible that the Lord hates, but this is certainly one of them. In fact, the Lord hates this so much that He reiterated this to the church in Pergamos in Revelation 2:15: “Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.” This time a practice has become so prevalent that it has been made into a doctrine/teaching.

The "works of the Nicolaitans" also has another aspect to it. And I would simply quote our brother Watchman Nee, from whom we have derived most of our spiritual help and foundational standing up to this day. Our Brother Watchman Nee says, "In the New Testament there is a fundamental principle: all the children of God are the priests of God. In Exodus 19, God called unto the people of Israel, saying, 'Now therefore, if you will obey My voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people... and you shall be unto Me a KINGDOM OF PRIESTS, and a holy nation.'God ordained from the beginning that the whole nation(i.e. all His people) be priests; but not long after the worshipping of the golden calf occured. [To shorten the passage a bit, allow me to put it concisely: God's wrath came upon His people and 3000 Isralites were slained. (Exo 32:25-29) Thereafter, only the tribe of Levites was selected by God to serve Him as priests. However, this was due to a temporary aberration caused by God's people fallen into idolatry. But in the New Testament, Peter gave us a great insight of the recovery of God's original intent when he said in 1 Peter 2:9, “You are a chosen generation, a ROYAL PRIESTHOOD, a holy nation...." In other words, the whole church, from the youngest to the oldest among us, have once again been restored to serve the Lord as priests! This restores us back to the original condition and plan of God.] The priests are in charge of God's business; every believer is in charge of God's business. There should be no mediatorial class in the church. The church has only ONE High priest, the Lord Jesus." Jesus said in Matthew 23:8,10: "But you, do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers... Neither be called leaders, because One is your Leader, the Christ." (Please keep in mind, these are all a direct quote of our most respected Watchman Nee's own words, upon whose shoulder we stand and from whom we have derived most of our great revelations, and not mine.)

However, when the Roman Catholic church came on the scene, they've established a group of clergy called "priests." And later they have established a whole system of hierarchy from the Pope to the Cardinals and all the way down to the "fathers" as an elaborate system of clergy not only to control the laymen, but they are the only ones authorized to teach and to preach the Word of God. In Protestant Christian churches, they have similar systems except they're called the episcopal system, pastoral system, and some more innocently called the eldership system. Again, I'm not saying that there are no

elders in the church, but they are not ordained by the Lord to be a mediatorial class of people or to be on a higher plain than the rest of the believers. They are simply there to function as the shepherds to feed and nourish and help the saints. 1 Peter 5:2-3 speaks about the functions of the proper good elders: "shepherd the flock of God among you, overseeing not by way of compulsion, but willingly according to God, not seeking gain by base means... Nor as lording it over the allotments, but becoming patterns to the flock." In other words, the elders are to lead by example and not by lording or exercising their authority to dictate to the sheep of Christ what they ought to do. In reality, a shepherd leads by going ahead of the flock, and not by pushing the flock to conform to their directions.

The various clerical systems of clery-and-laity have effectively stifled and paralyzed most of the Body of Christ by suppressing the proper functions of each member of the Body of Christ who has been given as a gift for the building of the Church. And this is the other aspect of how the "clergy" suppresses the normal functions and growth of the Body. This is usually manifested in Christianity by the one speaker system and the rest of the laity sit and listen such that their functions remain dormant or stifled. Now, I am not suggesting that all members have the function of teaching, preaching, prophesying, or exhorting, or have a word of wisdom to share, but there are certainly more than just a few. Surely, the Lord has given many gifts to His Body for her building and enrichment. And no matter how talented a member of the Body may be, it cannot replace the functions of the rest of the members of the Body of Christ. Thus Ephesians 4:16b says it is "according to the operation in measure of EACH ONE PART, (that) causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love." May we heed this warning and guard against this teaching and practice of the "Nicolaitans" which the Lord hates.

Thank the Lord for showing us the pattern from His divinely inspired and completed Word of how we ought to meet when the whole church gathered together. And may the Lord have mercy on us so that we may not repeat the mistakes of the past and suffer the same dire consequences when the supremacy of His Word is undermined by some persons' ministry and the members of the Body of Christ become stifled by an oppressive clergy and laity system so that the proper functions by the various gifts given to the Body could not function properly for the edification of the saints and the building up of the Body of Christ.