I.　It is a great blessing for us to see the revelation of the all-inclusive Christ in the Gospel of Matthew—1:1, 21, 23; 2:1-2; 3:11; 4:12-16; 8:20; 9:12, 15-17, 36, 38; 11:19, 28-30; 12:3, 6, 39-42; 15:26-27; 16:16; 21:5; 28:18-19.

II.　The Gospel of Matthew reveals that the all-inclusive Christ is everything in the church; we need to gain Christ in the church and for the church— 1:21, 23; 9:6, 12, 15-17, 38; 12:3-8, 39-42; 16:16-18:

A.　Knowing, experiencing, and enjoying Christ are for the building up of the church—22:41-45; 16:18; 18:17-20.

B.　The Lord's word in Matthew 16:18 is the greatest prophecy in the Bible: "I will build My church":

1.　The rock in verse 18 refers both to Christ and to the revelation concerning Christ; this means that the church is built both upon Christ and upon the revelation concerning Christ—Eph. 2:19-20.

2.　The Gospel of Matthew is concerned with the kingdom of the heavens, which is a matter of authority; thus, the church in this book represents the kingdom to reign—16:18-19; 18:18.

3.　The built-up church issues from the growth of Christ as the seed in the human heart as the soil; by the growth of Christ in us, we are transformed to become the hidden treasure and the pearl of great value for the fulfill-ment of God's eternal purpose and the satisfaction of His heart—13:3-8, 18-23, 44-46.

III.　The Lord's intention is to recover the church life as a corporate Emman-uel—1:23; 18:20; 28:20:

A.　We may experience and enjoy Christ as Emmanuel—1:23; 18:20; 28:20:

1.　Emmanuel is God incarnated to be with us; incarnation was the bringing forth of Emmanuel—1:20-23.

2.　In His humanity Jesus, God incarnate, is Emmanuel, God with us—v. 23.

3.　Emmanuel is God meeting our need in every way—v. 23:

a.　Christ as Emmanuel is both the complete God and the perfect man, possessing genuine divinity and real humanity; He has the capacity in His divinity and in His humanity to fully meet our need—Heb. 7:25.

b.　We need Christ in His divine capacity so that we may be divine as He is, and we need Him in His humanity so that we may be human as He is in the highest standard of humanity—Luke 1:35; 6:35:

(1).　By Him, with Him, and in Him we can be not only a proper and uplifted man but also a God-man, a divine man, as He is—Heb. 2:11.

(2).　Christ is divine becoming human so that we may be human becom-ing divine—Rom. 8:3; 1:3-4; John 1:14, 12-13.

(3).　Christ is now humanly divine to make us divinely human; in this way He, as the all-inclusive One, meets our need adequately and sufficiently in the most superior way—Rom. 1:3-4; Heb. 2:10.

4.　Today the practical Emmanuel is the Spirit of reality—John 14:16-20:

a.　Christ as the life-giving Spirit is Emmanuel, the presence of the Divine Trinity—1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 13:14.

b.　In Matthew 28:20 the "I" is Emmanuel; in John 14 the "I" who will come in verse 18 is the Spirit of reality in verse 17; thus, the Spirit of reality is Emmanuel.

c.　The divine presence is the life-giving Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God; this presence is Emmanuel, who is the real, practical Jesus, the Triune God with the tripartite man—Rom. 8:11.

d.　Emmanuel, the presence of the Divine Trinity, is always with us in our spirit; the One who is with our spirit is Emmanuel, God with us—2 Tim. 4:22; 1 Cor. 6:17.

5.　Our spirit is the land of Emmanuel; thus, we ourselves are the land of Emmanuel—Isa. 8:7-8, 10:

a.　The enemy, Satan, with his army, will do everything he can to take over this land of Emmanuel, that is, to take over our spirit and our being.

b.　Isaiah 8:10 tells us that because God is with us, the enemy can never take over the land of Emmanuel, our regenerated spirit mingled with the life-giving Spirit, the reality of Emmanuel—1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17.

B.　God desires that, in His economy, the individual Emmanuel become the cor-porate Emmanuel—Matt. 1:23; 18:20; 28:20:

1.　At the beginning of Matthew we have the individual Emmanuel, Jesus Christ; at the end of this book we have the corporate Emmanuel, the church life, in which the Lord is with us in a corporate way—1:20-23; 28:20:

a.　From God's point of view the name into which we are gathered is Jesus, but from our point of view the name into which we are gathered is Emmanuel; today in our experience the Jesus into whose name we are gathered is Emmanuel—1:21; 18:20.

b.　In 28:20 Emmanuel promised that in His resurrection He will be with us all the days, with all authority, until the consummation of the age.

2.　The individual Emmanuel was conceived of the Holy Spirit in a human virgin; the corporate Emmanuel is a matter of "conceiving" by the Holy Spirit in a body of virgins—1:18, 20, 23; 25:1; Luke 1:26-33; 2 Cor. 11:2.

3.　The individual Emmanuel becomes the corporate Emmanuel by all the experiences revealed in the Gospel of Matthew, the book of Emmanuel.

4.　The content of the entire New Testament is an Emmanuel, and all the believers in Christ, as the members of Christ, are a part of the corporate Emmanuel, the corporate Christ—1 Cor. 12:12; Col. 3:10-11.

5.　The corporate Emmanuel consummates in the New Jerusalem, which will be the aggregate of Emmanuel, the totality of the Triune God being with us— Rev. 21:2-3, 10.