Living a Life of Sacrifice by Experiencing Christ as the Wine-Producing Vine

After seeing our need to know life, grow in life, experience life, and minister life, the conclusion is: we need to live a sacrificing life in the Body of Christ, and we need to minister life to the Body for the growth of the Body.

The goal of God’s plan and economy is the building up of the Body of Christ in reality, and the building up of the Body is the preparation of the bride for whom the Lord will return as the Bridegroom. For the Body of Christ to be built up, there’s a great need for some members of the Body who know Christ, experience Christ, and even become Christ in the aspect of the wine-producing vine.

When Christ lived on earth He didn’t just express God, heal the sick, live a perfect life, taught people, and had compassion on others. Christ lived a sacrificing life His whole life, and He was the real vine, producing grapes, being crushed to be for God’s joy and man’s satisfaction.

We need not only to grow in life, experience life, and know life, but we also need to know Christ as the wine-producing vine, firstly by enjoying the fresh and cheering wine coming from Him and then by becoming a reproduction of Christ as the wine-producing vine.

Brother Watchman Nee was such a pattern in this respect, and in all the situations and circumstances he went through, wine came out of him for the cheering of God and man. Even at the end of his life he testified, I have maintained my joy.

Today as members of the Body we benefit of his rich ministry and speaking on this matter, and we ourselves need to delve into God’s word, pray much, and open to the Lord to experience Christ to such an extent for the building up of the Body.

We Need to Live a Sacrificing Life in the Body

In Rom. 12:1 Paul exhorts us to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God; this is our reasonable service. The Lord Jesus did this: He as the first God-man didn’t only sacrifice Himself when He was crucified – He lived a sacrificing life, and now as the Spirit He lives in us and wants to repeat the same kind of life, a sacrificing life to fulfill the desire of God’s heart.

This is not merely a “now and then experiencing a little sacrifice” or “doing something inconvenient for God”, but it is a living: living a life of sacrifice. To really see this, appreciate this, and enter into this, we need to know Christ, experience Christ, and even become Christ in a very particular way, as the wine-producing vine, the sacrificing life that produces wine to cheer God and man.

If we are willing to receive the grace to know and experience Christ as the vine in the midst of concrete situations and thus become the same as He is, the way will be open for many saints and even for God Himself to have more joy and cheer than we have ever known!

In Judges 9:13 we see that the vine would not leave its new wine (which cheers God and man) so that it may become ruler over the trees. Christ is the real vine – He sacrificed everything of Himself, and out of His sacrifice He produced new wine to cheer God and man (see Deut. 8:8; Psa. 104:15). Christ is the real wine-producer, and today He desires to be reproduced in many members of His Body.

Under the Lord’s sovereignty, we may be put into situations where we need to sacrifice ourselves to make others happy (Rom. 12:1; Eph. 5:2). If in such situations we turn to the Lord and contact Him, we will experience Him as the wine-producing vine, as the One who gives cheer to God and to others.

Paul was such a one: in Phil. 3:1 he wrote, Rejoice in the Lord! Even when he was in prison, he was joyful, rejoicing, and encouraging the saints to rejoice in the Lord!

Being Energized to Live a Life of Sacrifice

How can we live a life of sacrifice? In our natural man the only sacrifice we are willing to make is for our own benefits and pleasure, and we cannot live a life of sacrifice for God. We have no energy to sacrifice. But when we contact the Lord and enjoy Him as the tree of life and as the Lamb of God, we will be energized within to live a life of sacrifice.

Christ is all-inclusive, and when we enjoy Him by contacting Him and eating Him we are strengthened into our inner man, and we experience His sacrificing life. First we drink of Him as the wine-producing vine, and we are filled with joy and happiness! We are even “drunk with joy”, being filled with the new wine! We are so filled with Christ’s sacrificing life that we will willingly sacrifice ourselves for others to drink of the new wine of Christ.

Our natural life is a selfish life, but when we contact the Lord and experience His sacrificing life, He will energize us and strengthen us to sacrifice for God and for others (see Matt. 16:25; John 1:29; 20:22; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17; Phil. 4:13; Rom. 12:1; Eph. 5:2).

On His side, the Lord is faithful to arrange our situations to press us and constrain us, and on our side we need to continue to contact the Lord and experience Him. The result is NOT that we become “martyrs” or “heroes”, but that we become ministers of cheering life to others to make them happy and bring genuine joy in their life.

As we labor for the Lord and serve Him with our whole being in whatever capacity He has given us, we need to contact Him and enjoy Him as the sacrificing life, and we will be filled with God’s joy and cheering life! Our hearts will be warmed up and cheered, and there will be something so soothing and warming…we will experience Christ as the One who gives cheers to God and man!

It is in Him, through Him, and with Him that we become wine – we become one with Christ, we experience Christ, and He is making us the same as He is, a person living a life of sacrifice!

If we contact and experience Christ as such a wine-producing vine, we will never be burnt out, we will never be exhausted or wiped out, and we will never consider the price we pay as being too great. Rather, we will be inwardly energized to enjoy Christ as the cheering wine and flow Him out to others for their joy and God’s satisfaction.

Lord Jesus, we love You! We want to go on with You by experiencing You as the wine-producing vine. Fill us with Your sacrificing life, Lord, and cheer us with Your new and fresh wine. Strengthen us and energize us inwardly that we may live out the same kind of life You lived on earth, a life of sacrifice for God’s joy and man’s satisfaction. Gain many brothers and sisters who would experience You in such a way, some who would present their whole being a living sacrifice to You, holy, well pleasing to God, and cheering to the saints.

References and Further Reading

• This sharing is inspired from brother Ron Kangas’ sharing and portions in, The All-inclusive Christ (ch. 5), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, ITERO spring 2013 “The Experience, Growth, and Ministry of Life for the Body“, week 8 entitled, Living a Sacrificing Life in the Body and Ministering Life to the Body for the Growth of the Body.
• Further reading: message 50 in, Life-Study of Philippians (by Witness Lee).
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Let us contemplate the grape vine, / From its life now let us learn, / How its growth is fraught with suff’ring, / Midst environment so stern
  # Let me love and not be requited. / Let me serve and not be rewarded. / Let me labor and not be remembered. / Let me suffer and not be regarded. / Let me pour wine, while I drink not. / Let me break bread, while I keep not, / Pour my life out that others be blessed, / Be in suff’ring that they be contented.
  # When such as we the King can choose, / To share with Him His throne, / ’Tis passing strange that we refuse / To be our Lord’s alone. / O never speak of sacrifice! / A privilege untold / Is to be His at any price, / In Calv’ry’s hosts enrolled.