THE HEAVENLY
MINISTRY OF CHRIST
Read and pray: “But rise up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do” (Acts 9:6)
We have already considered the Lord as Sovereign and as Head. As Sovereign, He has the whole earth under His control. He directs the affairs of the nations with a view to the spread of the gospel and the gathering of the people of God. This sovereignty implies His move on the earth. He carries out a great move.
When we consider Him as Head, in addition to His move we can perceive that the matter of life also comes into view. Under the leadership of Christ as Head, an admirable work is carried out in life.
We do not know the details of the heavenly ministry of Christ, as Sovereign, which is carried out on the earth, but when we come to His ministry as Head, we see an excellent work in life, by life, and with life.
TWO ASPECTS OF THE HEADSHIP OF CHRIST
In Ephesians four we can see two categories of this excellent work of life. The first is the giving of gifts by Christ for the perfecting of the saints (vv. 8-12). “And He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints.”
The second category is to bring all the saints to grow in order to function. Through this growth and functioning the Body is built up in a direct way. “But holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ, out from whom all the Body, being joined together and knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love” (vv. 15-16).
The Head works for these two categories. It is the headship of Christ that produces the gifts so that the members may grow and function. This is an admirable work in life.
The way Christendom operates is altogether contrary to this. Seminaries are set up, teachers are hired to teach the Bible, theology, church history, Hebrew, and Greek, and then it is expected that the students will be perfected as preachers, ministers, pastors, and everything else.
Their trust is placed in an educational system. History has already shown that the Body of Christ cannot be built up in this way. Paul was not trained in a seminary. It was exclusively under the headship of Christ that he was raised up to be the most productive apostle of all.
THE ADMIRABLE WORK TO GAIN PAUL
How did Christ exercise His headship in order to gain Paul as a gift to the Body? You should remember that Stephen suffered martyrdom right before the eyes of the young man called Saul of Tarsus (Acts 7:58).
The death of Stephen was not an isolated or individual event. At that time the whole Body of Christ was under persecution. Saul was one of the leaders who “ravaged the church” (8:13).
The Head of the Body allowed that persecution in order to show Saul what the Body of Christ is. Saul saw the Body suffer while he was persecuting the members who called on the name of the Lord. After that, he joyfully began his journey to Damascus with the intention of arresting other members. This was the set of circumstances that the Head prepared for His future apostle.
Suddenly Jesus entered the scene, proceeding not from the earth but from the heavens. This Jesus was now “Head over all things […] to the church, which is His Body”! Saul was stunned to hear the voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (9:4).
Yes, he was stunned to be confronted by Jesus; however, he was even more stunned to realize that the believers whom he was persecuting were the members of the Body of Christ. At the very moment of his conversion, under the leadership of the Head, Christ, Saul became aware of the Body.
The Head Is One with the Body
Saul, of course, did not argue. He did not say, “Lord, I did not persecute You. I did not persecute anyone in the heavens. Those whom I tried to arrest are on the earth.” Why did Saul not argue? I believe that while the Lord was saying to him, “I am Jesus, whom you persecute” (v. 5), the Spirit of the Body was touching Saul.
The conversion of Peter was much simpler than that of Paul. Peter was with his brother, fishing, when the Lord called them: “Come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt. 4:18-20). The Galilean fisherman did not hesitate to follow Him. He liked the idea of becoming a fisher of men rather than merely catching fish.
Paul’s case was much deeper. The way the Lord approached him, asking him that short question, surely caused him to think. Although the words the Lord spoke to him were few, they must have occupied Saul’s thoughts during all the days that followed the event, while he could not see.
Surely he could not have spent those three days sleeping! He must have been extremely disturbed by that tremendous encounter. He must have asked himself, “Why did that voice say, ‘Why are you persecuting Me?’ What did He mean by Me?” The Spirit of the Body must have told him, “Me means the enlarged Christ, the increased Christ, the corporate Christ, the Christ who includes Peter, James, and Stephen.”
When Saul asked, “Who are You, Lord?” the answer was, “I am Jesus.” But how could it be Jesus? Was Jesus not dead and buried? How then could He now descend from the heavens?
Revealing His Will through the Body
Saul must also have thought about the Lord’s words: “But rise up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do” (Acts 9:6). Why did the Lord give him such an indirect answer to his question, “What shall I do, Lord?” [22:10].
Once again, the Head was showing him the principle of the Body. Saul was not to know the will of the Lord by himself. He would take part in the Body and therefore needed to be trained to recognize the Body.
He would have to learn to trust his brothers, the other members. The Head had been persecuted by Saul through the Body. Now he would learn to respect the Body. Instead of telling him directly what to do, the Lord would send Ananias, a humble disciple, to restore his sight and make His will known to him.
It would not be one of the leaders, such as Peter, who would go to him, but an unknown person. In this way the Lord would subdue Saul and make him an effective apostle.
To show the great contrast between his case and that of Peter, note the simple way in which Peter became an apostle. First, the Lord saw him and called him to be a fisher of men.
Then, perhaps one or two years later, He simply sent him out with the other eleven, who from then on became apostles (Matt. 10:1-5). How foolish of the Catholic Church to have exalted this simple apostle!
While praying in Damascus, Saul had a vision in which Ananias would come and heal him of his blindness. We knew nothing about this humble disciple before that occasion, but the Head knew him and informed Saul that he would come.
Then the Head commanded Ananias: “Rise up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias entering and laying his hands on him so that he might receive his sight” (Acts 9:10-12). Do you realize how Christ was busy, going back and forth between Ananias and Saul? He was carrying out His heavenly ministry.
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Hymn: Spiritual Warfare – “Forward”
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