第一週 • 週四
晨興餧養
太三15~16 …因為我們理當這樣盡全般的義。…耶穌受了浸，隨即從水裏上來，看哪，諸天向祂開了，祂就看見神的靈，彷彿鴿子降下，落在祂身上。
十一29 我心裏柔和謙卑，因此你們要負我的軛，且要跟我學…。
第一個神人基督，以特別的方式活在地上，為着完成神永遠的經綸，這經綸要終極完成於新耶路撒冷。四福音的中心乃是基督。馬太一章十八節和二十節說，這位神人的成孕乃是出於聖靈。神人是一個人位，卻有兩個源頭。第一個源頭是神聖的，第二個源頭是屬人的。祂是兼有屬人與神聖二性的一個人。
基督藉着受浸開始祂的職事（三13~17）。在祂盡職作任何事之前，祂所作的第一件事乃是受浸，照着約翰所帶進的義路而盡義（15，二一32）。…主耶穌承認，按祂的肉體（祂的人性—約一14，羅一3，八3）說，祂一無用處，只配死和埋葬。耶穌需要受浸，因為祂成了肉體，而肉體在神眼中是一無用處，只配死和埋葬的。藉着浸，將這樣一個死人埋葬，乃是義路（李常受文集一九九四至一九九七年第三冊，六○一至六○三頁）。
信息選讀
〔主〕在用五餅二魚食飽五千人所行的神蹟上，訓練門徒要跟祂學。在馬太十一章二十九節，主告訴門徒要跟祂學，指明祂乃是他們的榜樣。
十四章十九節說，祂拿着五個餅兩條魚，在祝福的時候，是望着天。…『望着天』指明祂仰望祂在天上的父。這指明祂知道祝福的源頭不是祂。祂乃是受差遣者。…差遣者是父，祂纔是祝福的源頭。
這裏有一個很大的功課要我們學。讀聖經的人大多注意到在馬太十四章裏，主從無變有的神蹟。但我們必須看見，主在這裏為我們所立的榜樣。我們必須記得，祂在門徒面前仰望天上的父，並祝福五餅二魚。祂這樣祝福之後，就告訴門徒該作甚麼。毫無疑問的，祂所作的乃是榜樣，要門徒跟祂學。按照這個榜樣，我們必須看見，我們不是差遣者，我們只是差遣者所差遣的人。無論我們能作多少，我們應當看見，我們仍然需要從源頭，就是從那差遣我們者而來的祝福，使我們能把祝福傳給受益處的人。這是我所要強調一個大的功課。
在行了神蹟後，主就獨自上山去禱告（23，參路六12）。…主沒有與羣眾在一起留在所行神蹟的結果裏，乃是離開他們，在山上在禱告中獨自與父在一起。我們若到一個地方去，有了極大的成功，我們會立即離開，還是會留下來享受這個大的成功？我們必須看見並跟從主耶穌的榜樣。…『獨自』這辭很有意義。這意思是說，祂不讓人知道祂去禱告；否則，他們會跟着祂。…我喜歡這三句話：『在山上』、『在禱告中』、『與父在一起』。我們應當從主在這裏的榜樣學，操練在山上在禱告中與祂在一起。祂望着天，意思是祂不信靠自己。祂上山去，意思是祂要在禱告中與父在一起（李常受文集一九九四至一九九七年第三冊，七○五至七○六、七○九至七一○頁）。
參讀：神人的生活，第一、四至六、八、十、十三至十四、十六章。
WEEK 1 — DAY 4
Morning Nourishment
Matt. 3:15-16 …For it is fitting for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness…And having been baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon Him.
11:29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart…
As the first God-man, Christ lived on earth in a particular way for the accomplishing of God’s eternal economy, which ultimately consummates in the New Jerusalem. The very center of the four Gospels is Christ. Matthew 1:18 and 20 say that this God-man’s conception was of the Holy Spirit. The God-man was one person but of two sources. The first source is divine, and the second source is human. He was one person of two natures—human and divine.
Christ’s ministry commenced through His baptism (3:13-17). Before He carried out any part of His ministry, the first thing He did was to be baptized to fulfill the righteousness according to the way of righteousness brought in by John (v. 15; 21:32). The Lord Jesus recognized that, according to His flesh (His humanity—John 1:14; Rom. 1:3; 8:3), He was good for nothing but death and burial. Jesus needed to be baptized because He became flesh, and the flesh, in the eyes of God, is good for nothing but death and burial. To bury such a dead person by baptism is the way of righteousness. (CWWL, 1994- 1997, vol. 3, “The God-man Living,” pp. 473-475)
Today’s Reading
In the performing of the miracle of feeding five thousand people with five loaves and two fish, He trained His disciples…In Matthew 11:29 the Lord told the disciples that they needed to learn from Him, indicating that He was their pattern.
Matthew 14:19 says that He took the five loaves and two fish and when He was going to bless them, He looked up to heaven…Looking up to heaven indicates that He was looking up to His Father in heaven. This indicates that He realized the source of the blessing was not Him. He was the sent One… The sending One, the Father, should be the source of blessing.
Here is a great lesson for us to learn. Most readers of the Bible would pay attention to the miracle of creating something from nothing performed by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 14. But we need to see the pattern that the Lord set up for us here. We need to remember that He looked up to the Father in heaven and blessed the five loaves and two fish in front of His disciples. After His blessing in this way, He told the disciples what to do. No doubt, what He did was a pattern for the disciples to learn from Him. According to this pattern, we have to realize that we are not the Sender but the ones sent by the Sender. Regardless of how much we can do, we should realize that we still need the blessing from the source, from our Sender, that we can pass on to the benefited ones. This is a big lesson that I want to stress.
After performing the miracle, the Lord went up to the mountain privately to pray (v. 23; cf. Luke 6:12). The Lord did not remain in the issue of the miracle with the crowds but went away from them to be with the Father privately on the mountain in prayer. If we go to a certain place and have a great success, would we leave right away, or would we remain in this big success to enjoy it? We need to see and follow the pattern of the Lord Jesus… The word privately is very meaningful. This means He did not let the people know that He was going to pray. Otherwise, they would have followed Him… I like these three phrases: to be with the Father, on the mountain, and in prayer. We should learn from the Lord’s pattern here by exercising to be with Him on the mountain in prayer. His looking up to heaven means that He had no trust in Himself. His going up to the mountain means that He wanted to be with the Father in prayer. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The God-man Living,” pp. 561, 564-565)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The God-man Living,” chs. 1, 4—6, 8, 10, 13—14, 16
