Life-Study of Matthew
1986
The Gospel of Matthew reveals that Christ is God incarnated to be the king-savior who came to establish the kingdom of the heavens by saving his people from sin through his death and resurrection. Christ, as the son of David according to the flesh, came as the proper heir to the throne of David; as God incarnate, he came as the first God-man. God named him Jesus, yet he was called Emmanuel ("God with us") by men. As the new king, Christ was recommended by John, anointed by the spirit, and tested by the devil. Having defeated the devil, he began his ministry to establish the kingdom of the heavens. Matthew presents the kingdom of the heavens in three aspects, the reality of the kingdom of the heavens (5:1—7:29), the outward appearance of the kingdom of the heavens (13:1-52), and the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens (24:1—25:46).
Author Witness Lee reveals that the reality of the kingdom is simply the king himself, sown into humanity as the seed of the kingdom. This kingdom seed, containing the kingdom life and nature, will grow and develop in the believers, constituting them the reality of the kingdom, until it is brought to full maturity as the manifestation of the kingdom. In particular, it explains the crucial difference between the kingdom of the heavens and the kingdom of God, and presents a clear understanding of the Lord’s prophecies concerning Israel, the church, and the nations at the consummation of the age.
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In the Lord’s recovery during the past five hundred years the church’s knowledge of the Lord and His truth has been continually progressing. This monumental and classical work by Brother Witness Lee builds upon and is a further development of all that the Lord has revealed to His church in the past centuries. It is filled with the revelation concerning the processed Triune God, the living Christ, the life-giving Spirit, the experience of life, and the definition and practice of the church.
In this set Brother Lee has kept three basic principles that should rule and govern every believer in their interpretation, development, and expounding of the truths contained in the Scriptures. The first principle is that of the Triune God dispensing Himself into His chosen and redeemed people; the second principle is that we should interpret, develop, and expound the truths contained in the Bible with Christ for the church; and the third governing principle is Christ, the Spirit, life, and the church. No other study or exposition of the New Testament conveys the life nourishment or ushers the reader into the divine revelation of God’s holy Word according to His New Testament economy as this one does.