The New Covenant Ministry and Its Ministers - 1

Message Title: Christ Himself as the All-inclusive Life-giving Spirit being the Reality and Conetent of the New Covenant Ministry and the Constitution of the New Covenant Ministers

2 Corinthians 4:1 Therefore having this ministry as we have been shown mercy, we do not lose heart;

we do not lose heart because we have this ministry, the unique ministry. 

2 Timothy 4:5 But you, be sober in all things, suffer evil, do the work of an evangelist, fully accomplish your ministry.

we also need to see that, each of us has a personal ministry within this corporate ministry. we each has a particular function, and no one has a function that each one of us has. we have to fill up the full measure of our function in the Body. we do not want to come short of our measure. the Lord wants all His believers to be recovered to be the new covenant ministers. this is against our human concept. look at our physical body. each of the member in our physical body has its own function, and every member is necessary. our physical body is a picture, a shadow of the Body of Christ. so each of us, as the many members of the Body of Christ, is indispensible with a unique portion, a particular function. we should never say that we do not need the other members in the church life. 

I. in Greek the same word is used for both covenant and testament

our eyes need to be opened that we have the unsearchable riches of Christ in our spirit. we are people of untold will. the Bible is our will, and there are bequests in this will. 

Acts 5:20 Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.

"the divine life preached, ministered, and lived by Peter that overcame the Jewish leaders' persecution, threatening, and imprisonment. This word indicates that Peter's life and work made the divine life so real and present in his situation that even the angel saw it and pointed it out. " - footnote for "this"

A covenant and a testament are the same, but when the maker of the covenant is living, it is a covenant, and when he has died, it is a testament; a testament in today's term is a will. when Christ died on the cross, the testament was enforced, and this will to us has been enacted. then in Christ's resurrection, He became the New Testament, and all the bequests of this new covenant. and in His ascension, Christ became the executor of this new covenant, to carry out all its bequests. 

II. Christ Himself as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit is the new covenant, the new testament, given to us by God.

how do we know this? because the Bible tellls me so.

Isaiah 42:6 I am Jehovah; I have called You in righteousness; / I have held You by the hand; / I have kept You and I have given You / As a covenant for the people, as a light for the nations;

Isaiah 49:8 Thus says Jehovah, / In an acceptable time I have answered You, / And in a day of salvation I have helped You; / And I will preserve You and give You for a covenant of the people, / To restore the land, to apportion the desolate inheritances,

Christ Himself is the new covenant. Through His death Christ fulfilled the demands of God's righteousness according to His law and enacted the new covenant, and in His resurrection He became the new covenant with all its bequests. 

Galatians 3:14 In order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

because the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land, became the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, we can say that the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit is the reality of the good land. thus, the Spirit is the blessing of Abraham. we have the blessing of Abraham in our spirit. the blessing of Abraham is the Spirit. 

III. our spirit is the "bank account" of all the bequests of the new covenant; by the law of the Spirit of life, all these bequests are dispensed into us and made real to us 

Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.

what is this law of the Spirit of life? Paul made great discoveries in Romans chapters 7 and 8. most of times, we say that we need to switch on the law of Spirit of life. our spirit is not only the "bank account", but also a switch. therefore, we need to switch on by exercising our spirit. one wonderful way to switch on is just to say, "Lord Jesus, I love You." we need to tell the Lord that we love Him everyday. when we tell the Lord that we love Him, it is very hard, even impossible to not smile. there are also other ways to switch on, like calling on the name of the Lord. accoding to Romans 8, if we exercis our spirit to switch on the law of the Spirit of life, as an automatic principle and a spotaneous power, first, our spirit is life, the zoe life, the divine, eternal, uncreated life. this zoe life is a Person, Christ as the life-giving Spirit. Christ is the law of the Spirit of life in us.  Romans 8:6 that the mind set on the spirit is zoe. to set our mind on the spirit means that we pay attention to our spirit. everyday we should pay attention to our spirit.