What is the Mystery of Christ Mentioned in Ephesians 5:32?

       When I grew up I always associated going to church with crosses on a building, hard wooden pews, and stain glass windows. Then in 5^th grade our family started going to the church in Yorba Linda in Southern California.  I didn’t think much about the funny name or that we met in a house instead of a typical church building.   



Our family went to spend the weekend at a mountain cabin.

     I didn’t understand how this church was any different from any other church until I was in junior high and started attending conferences with my friends that talked about the ground of the church.   Anyway like most junior highers who sit in two-hour meetings, I passed notes and whispered to my friends.  But when you hear something over and over, some things start to stick.  Many of the verses and some of the sharing got permanently etched into my memory.

   
Here’s some of what I remember, I'm just typing this while I'm thinking—In the book of Acts the believers didn’t call themselves by any name, just the name of the city they lived in.  We read every verse in the New Testament that had the word church or churches in it.  If you get out your Strong’s Concordance you can make a list.  It is amazing that church always goes with a city, and churches always refers to a region like Galatia where there were many cities. 

    And if you’re still thinking the church equals a building, it’s really helpful to go back and look at Matthew 16 and 18 where the word church is first mentioned by the Lord.  The Greek meaning for church is the called out assembly.     And in Acts 14:23 the elders were appointed according to every church, and in the sister verse in Titus 1:5 the elders were appointed according to the city.  These two verses point out that the eldership is according to one church in one city. When you read through Acts, you can see that there were thousands of believers that were raised up in this first church in Jerusalem.  These believers met like Acts 2:42 says from house to house, and they had fellowship with other churches and even gave for their needs. 

      In these conferences they would often go through church history which can be very fascinating depending on how it’s presented.  From the time of Acts there have always been a group of people who refused to buckle under the pressure of the pope, state churches, etc.  These ones--like  the Anabaptists, the Mennonites, the Moravian Brethren--met just like the believers did in Acts receiving all other believers (You can check that out in Romans 14).  Throughout all these centuries the Lord bit by bit recovered lost New Testament truths.

    Through many missionaries, the gospel came to China.  And through that the Lord raised up Watchman Nee to see the divine revelation that had been lost concerning the believers meeting according to their city. (You can read about this in Witness Lee's  biography about Watchman Nee called  Watchman Nee - A  Seer of the Divine Revelation in the Present Age which I would encourage you to read.)  Through brother Nee's reading of the New Testament and church history, he saw that the ground of the church is not built around a person like Lutherans or a practice like baptism,  but simply the city a believer lives in.   Watchman Nee began to practice what he saw, and he was also faithful to speak what he saw, and over time hundreds began to meet  as the churches in their city.  

   Through the Lord's leading, Witness Lee became a coworker of Watchman Nee, and they labored together in China for many years.  Before the communist takeover, brother Nee sent him out in 1949 in order to preserve the truths the Lord had shown them.  After living in Taiwan for several years, Witness Lee was led by the Lord in 1962 to move to Los Angeles. I remember going with my father when I was in sixth grade to hear him speak there. I had never heard a native Chinese person speak before, and his accent was very strong back then.   As a new believer, my father was very encouraged  by his speaking.

   When I was a sophomore in high school, I tried to go back to the Catholic Church.  But I couldn't forget what I had heard. The next year some friends tried to convert me to something else, but I couldn't forget what I had heard. I planned to move after I finished high school to a city where the church was meeting.  During college I also went to some of Witness Lee's live trainings in Anaheim.  And I also read Further Talks on the Church Life by Watchman Nee,  The Practical Expression of the Church and The Ground of the Church by Witness Lee.  All of these books were a great help to me.

     Last week when I  was reading chapter 18 of the Life-Study of Colossians,  I read about how the mystery of Christ is the church.  And on pages 147-148  Witness Lee gives some of his own personal testimony about seeing how the church should meet: 

      Allow me to testify of my experience about becoming assured regarding the ground of the church.  In 1932 we began to practice the church life in Chefoo, my home town…Eventually I concluded that if were to be a man, I had to believe in the Lord Jesus; that if I were to believe in the Lord, I had to love Him; and that if were to love Him, I had to take the way of the church. As a result, I received the full assurance concerning the ground of the church.  I had not only faith, but also the knowledge which caused me to have certainty. For more than forty-six years I have not changed my position with respect to the church ground, no matter how much I have suffered because of the stand I have taken....Concerning Christ as the mystery of God, we need faith, knowledge, certainty, and thorough understanding. (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of Colossians. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1979, Print). 

   So I’ve shared with you a little bit of my own journey with this truth, and I would encourage you to read the verses, pray, read these books online, and check out the resources on Living Stream Ministry's website. 

Here's a blog I checked out called Grace & Truth that has a really helpful post on this topic.

Blog Update 5-11-14:   I just read the Congressional Record from April 29, 2014 which contains a speech on both Watchman Nee and Witness Lee's ministry in China and abroad.  

You can listen to excerpts from the Life-Study of Colossians given in 1979 on The Life-Study of the Bible with Witness Lee. 

Other Posts on the Life-Study of Colossians:

What is God's Will in Colossians 1:9?
What is the Stewardship of God in Colossians 1:25?
What is the Hope of Glory in Colossians 1:27?
What is the Mystery of God in Colossians 2:2? (Part 1)
What is the Mystery of Christ in Ephesians 5:32?   (Part 2)
What is the Greatest Mystery?
What is God's Intention for Your Life?
From the Life-Study of Colossians - What Happens When We Pray?
How Does God Get the One New Man in Colossians 3:10?
What Does Colossians 2:7 Say About Spiritual Growth? (Part 1)
What is the Goal of Spiritual Growth in Colossians 2:19?  (Part 2)
What is Christ Doing at the Right Hand of God in Colossians 3:2?