THE SIGN OF THE LORD’S SENDING
The last sign in this chapter is that of the Lord’s sending of His disciples (v. 21). As we have already indicated, this signifies that His commission to the disciples is like the Father’s commission to Him. If we consider this matter carefully, we shall realize that it is a great thing. God came to man in the way of being in His Son. Therefore, when the Son came, God the Father came in the Son and with the Son. Now, through death and resurrection, the Son has been multiplied. The Son sends the disciples as the Father sent Him—by being in them to be one with them. Hence, the disciples are one with the Son and also one with the Father.
Do you know what the church is? The church is the sent ones meeting with the Son and the Father. Whenever we meet, we have the Son and the Father within us. Wherever we go, the Son and the Father go with us. If we see this, we shall have assurance and confidence, and this assurance and confidence will become our power and authority.
The Son is the embodiment of the Father, and we are the multiplication of the Son. This is what it means to be a Christian, one who believes in Christ. Christians are actually the multiplication of the embodiment of God. This sounds like a heavenly language. Whenever we come together in the church meetings, we need to have the realization that we, the believers, are the multiplication of the embodiment of God. Such a realization will surely change our church life and cause our spirits to soar.
We have seen that the first seventeen chapters of the Gospel of John present God living as a man among men. Chapters eighteen and nineteen present life passing through the process of death. Now in chapters twenty and twenty-one we see resurrection. This resurrection is the Spirit, the pneuma. Therefore, in chapters one through seventeen, we have God; in chapters eighteen and nineteen, we have life; and in chapters twenty and twenty-one, we have the Spirit in resurrection. This means that in the Gospel of John we have God, life, and the Spirit. Chapters one through seventeen show us God living among men; chapters eighteen and nineteen, life passing through death; and chapters twenty and twenty-one, the Spirit, the pneuma, moving in resurrection.
The moving of the Spirit in resurrection has not ceased; rather, it continues today. Concerning this, there is no end to the Gospel of John. This Gospel does not give us a record of the Lord’s public ascension, as we have in Mark and Luke. According to the Gospel of John, the resurrected Christ breathed Himself into His disciples as the holy breath and now dwells in them. Therefore, this breath, this pneuma, is still moving in resurrection.
The Gospel of John reveals that God lived among men, that life passed through death, and that now the Spirit is moving in resurrection. Do you know where we are today? We are in resurrection enjoying this pneuma as the multiplication of the embodiment of God, and this multiplication is the Lord’s glorification. Praise the Lord for the marvelous revelation in chapter twenty of John!
(The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John, Chapter 60, by Witness Lee)
