Peter | Hi, I'm Jonathan 'J5' Harris.

Living Stream Ministry Podcast ::

The gospel of John chapter 1 is worthy of a lifetime of study and consideration. It is perhaps one of the most marvelous portions in all of Scripture. Marvelous because it unveils Christ to us in so many aspects. Verse 1 shows Him as the Word…the very Son of God in eternity past. And at the end of the chapter (verse 51) we see Him revealed not just as the Son of God…but as the Son of Man for God’s building…for God’s habitation in eternity future.

And in between these two book ends, we see Him in glory as the only-begotten Son full of grace and reality…even as the very fullness of God declaring Him and making Him known in a wonderful and experiential way.

John 1 first of all tells us that Christ as the Word (which was God Himself) came as life to us and as light shining within us for the purpose to bring forth many children of God that God may have the enlargement…that God may have a corporate expression. This is revealed in the first thirteen verses of chapter one. Now we have the second section of chapter one that is composed with verses 14 to 18.

In this section it unfolds to us that the very Christ…now He was incarnated in the flesh for us to enjoy Him. How Christ could be enjoyed by us? By being incarnated. Christ was the Word yet even He Himself as the word was mysterious. But He became flesh. He became incarnated. Now in the flesh, He became so real to us. He was intangible. He was invisible. He was not touchable. He was not seen. But by becoming flesh, He became so solid. So real…seen, visible, touchable, tangible. But just being tangible still is not good for us to enjoy Him.

But here is says when He became flesh He was full of (not doctrines, not gifts) grace and reality. Every disciple saw Him and everyone touched Him….not only touched Him…enjoyed Him. If you check with Peter…if you check with Mary…why they love Jesus that much…why they liked to be in His presence. They would say, “we cannot tell you why, but we can tell you as long as we stay with Him, there is a kind of enjoyment. No word can utter it, but we all can testify just to sit in His presence for half an hour…my oh the sweetness…oh the enjoyment…oh the reality. We don’t know how to explain. We don’t know how to define. But we do know we have enjoyed something.” What was that? That was full of grace and reality.

Living Stream Ministry Podcast ::

Matthew 6:21 says “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” This simple expression is full of meaning. If we expect to get our heart on heaven and on the heavenly things, we need to get our treasure there first.

Matthew chapters 5,6 and 7 is a section of the Bible we are calling the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens. This section has been called the sermon on the mount…,but in our Life-study, Witness Lee is using this term the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens. Why is seeing this section as a constitution helpful for us in understanding the real meaning and importance of this section of scripture?

It’s very important for us to realize that these three chapters (Matt. 5,6,7) are the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens. We call it the constitution because (we can say it this way) every nation has a constitution. In 1 Pet. 2:9, Peter refers to the believers in Christ as a holy nation. So in Matthew 5,6 and 7, what we see are God’s divine principles concerning the way we should live…the way we conduct ourselves. And actually He reveals to us, if we actually live Christ in our daily life…if we live by Christ…if Christ has a way to live through us, Matthew 5,6 and 7 will be the expression of that very Christ that we live.

So this is why we call this the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens. This is the way we should live in our christian life described in these chapters.

This constitution is altogether composed…constituted…with the Father’s life…the Father’s nature. The constitution always is based upon certain kind of life. Suppose you are going to make a constitution for the dog. You have to make it based upon the dog life. You cannot say “Dog every day in the morning you have to keep your morning watch by flying in the air.” He cannot FLY! But if you say “Dog, you are to keep your morning watch by barking,” they all would say “BARK!” This is a good constitution.

The Lord Jesus on the mount was not giving a constitution based upon the dog life. This constitution was made upon the Son of God. “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the sons of God.” “You therefore shall be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” This section of the word was given based upon the divine life and the divine nature.

Many many thought these 3 chapters were given just to the human beings. NO! The human life cannot make it. The human life is just like the dog life. If you ask the human life to fly, the human life cannot fly. For the dog to bark…that’s OK, but for the dog to fly in the air that’s impossible.

This is not the constitution of the dog kingdom. This is the constitution of the bird kingdom. This is the constitution given based upon the divine life…based upon the divine nature.