IV. TO MEET BEING TO BUILD UP THE CHURCH
We also need to see that to meet is to build up the church (1 Cor. 14:26). First Corinthians 14 says that in a meeting the best thing is to prophesy (v. 31). This is because prophesying builds the church (v. 4b). This tells us clearly that when we come to the meeting, we build up the church. To meet is a service, and this is the building service, the building ministry.
We need to spend a longer time in our sharing to stress this one thing: that every saint has to build up the church. According to Ephesians 4:16, the Body of Christ is built up not only through every joint of the rich supply but also through the operation in measure of each one part. This indicates that every saint must participate in the building up of the Body. This is carried out mainly by coming to the meeting. To meet is the way to build up the church.
Every attendant in the meeting must be a builder to do the building work. But we need to consider our situation today. A number of saints in our meetings would not do anything. They just sit there expecting to receive something. But if all the saints would exercise to build the meeting, surely we would have a strong meeting, a rich meeting, and a high meeting. Suppose not even one saint would function in the meeting, and everyone came to the meeting to sit there dumbly. That would be the lowest meeting, the poorest meeting, a meeting with nothing. The more we open our mouths to speak for the Lord, the more the building work will be done. The more we all exercise to speak Christ in the meetings, the richer, the higher, and the more living the meetings will be. We need to encourage all the saints to minister, to serve, for the building up of the church (1 Cor. 14:3-5).
V. HOW TO MEET
A. Into the Lord’s Name
In Matthew 18:20 the Lord said, "For where there are two or three gathered into My name, there am I in their midst." We need to notice that according to the Greek text, it is not to be gathered in the Lord’s name but into His name. Whenever we come to the meeting, we have to come out of our self, out of the world, out of our house, out of our family, out of our job, out of our business, out of our school, and out of everything other than Christ. We have to come into His name. The name of the Lord in the New Testament means His person. When we are gathered into His name, that means we gather into the person of the Lord. We need to come out of many other things and come into the Lord Himself.
(Basic Lessons on Service, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee)
