The Body of Christ

[00:00:00] I have some thoughts that have arisen from the passage in the first letter to the church at Corinth and chapter twelve. [00:00:23] I cannot read a all that chapter from verse four to verse 31, but I think most of you are well acquainted with it. Anyway, I have some points I want to make which I believe to be very important. [00:00:40] They may not fit into the category of what some would expect in New Year's message, but they're what the Lord has given me, and I am sure that in understanding them, we shall understand the objective of the Lord's dealings and the desire of his heart as we enter into a new year, which I think for the world as well as for his people, is going to be such a strategic one. [00:01:11] From this chapter, which you know well, which describes to us the church in function, it describes to us all the different, varied, many sided gifts that are found within the body of Christ, the way that those gifts and functions are interrelated, the way that they are harmonized, the way that they have become, as it were, one personality, for want of a better term, this wonderful chapter here, chapter twelve of corinthians, defines for us something of the Lord's mind. When Paul came to the problem of how to express this spiritual fact in human language, I think he must for a while have been bewildered. [00:02:19] You see, the New Testament is not the definition of something which later everyone came into. [00:02:28] The New Testament is the interpretation and explanation of what had already happened. [00:02:39] It is everywhere. The explanation, particularly the letters of Paul, all the epistles of the apostles, are in actual fact interpretations and explanations of experience. [00:02:56] Paul wasn't saying, now look here, this is what the church should be like. [00:03:01] He was saying. He was explaining a fact, them something had come into being, Pentecost. [00:03:09] When the Lord Jesus had died, he had obtained something in his day, when he arose, and when he ascended, he ascended into heaven with one great objective, to send the Holy Spirit into the world. [00:03:30] And when the Holy Spirit came into the world in a personal and new way, in a way that he had never before come to dwell in those who were born again of God, begotten of the Holy Spirit, there came into being an entity, there came into being a something which Paul found the utmost difficulty in explaining. [00:04:03] We, of course, now call it the church. [00:04:08] Paul described it in a way which, if it would only come to us afresh, would revolutionize our whole attitude to the christian life and to the purpose of goddess. And I believe the Lord himself when he described it as a body. [00:04:32] You know, nowhere in the Old Testament the people of God ever described as being built on the principle of a body. [00:04:45] It was in what Paul called the mystery hidden from ages, now revealed. Of course, there are glimpses of it. There are all kinds of little pointers toward this tremendous fact that was to come by the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. [00:05:07] But it was left, really above all to Paul to bring to us, as it were, an understanding of this amazing act of God which began at the day of Pentecost. [00:05:28] And, you know, Paul, once he starts along this line, you begin to get it everywhere. All through his letters, he begins to come back to this point of the church, which is his body. [00:05:40] He finds that the human body is the best example or illustration of this amazing miracle of the Holy Spirit by which he has begotten again, a people, but not just left them as so many units, so many individuals. He has integrated them, he has unified them, he has reconciled them in such a way that they have become an entity. They have become a corporate personality, they have become a corporate person. [00:06:27] And so for Paul, all the question of life, whatever it is, in all its many sides and aspects, was a question of how related we are to Christ in his body. [00:06:42] It was a question of how we Understood everything. Have we got a ministry? Well, Paul says it's only like a member of the body. Have we got a function? Well, it's only like being a function of the bodY. None of these things can operate on their own. If they do, they are liable to error, they are liable to perversion, they are liable to distortion. [00:07:09] They have got to function as a body, every part interacting with the other, all moving together, all, as it were, helping each other, each other dependent on the other for the fulfillment of its own original ministry. [00:07:32] Well, that's how Paul described this mystery. And he makes such a lot about the mystery. He says that this mystery was given to him to reveal. He says that this mystery is something which has been hid from all the ages and generations till then. Now it's been revealed, this wonderful of the reversal of the fall, not merely in the doing away of sin, and not merely in the redemption of humanity, but in the complete possession of a people as God originally intended in the very beginning. Well, that's just a few words now, one or two thoughts that arise out of this chapter and one or two others. The first I want to say. Well, the beginning, the first point I want to make, we may not get beyond two points this morning, and I should leave it. [00:08:39] The first point I want to make is this. It may actually be open to misunderstanding or misconstruction but I will say, seek from the scripture to point out what I mean. To be Christ centered is to be church centered. [00:08:59] To be Christ centered is to be church centered. [00:09:06] We are, by birth, by spiritual birth, members not of many bodies, but members of one body. [00:09:17] All the members of my body have, as it were, one unit, one headquarters. [00:09:26] They are absolutely united in one life. [00:09:32] This life that is in my body, the personality that comes through me, the person that I am. No one else can be me. I cannot really be anyone else. [00:09:45] I might be a poor character, but my body can only express what is inside. [00:09:52] Every limb, every muscle, every nerve, every bone, every part of me is integrated into Lance Lambert. [00:10:05] I haven't got anything else in me. I haven't got Ron Roberts in me. I haven't got Eric luck in me. I haven't got anyone else in me. But yet they have muscles, they have nerves, they have bones. In many ways there's something of a kinship. And yet all these that belong to this body is Lance Lambert. It's part of him, it's integrated into him, it expresses him. [00:10:35] When Paul used this illustration, he meant simply this, that we who are many are one body. There may be many members, there may be multitudes of christians, but there's only one body. [00:10:50] Though each one has an original aspect of Christ to express and to impart, yet there is only one life, there is only one body. May I put it this way, there is only one divine personality. Through all these many members are to be integrated into one force. This is taken so far in scripture that we are even called the Christ. [00:11:21] We are even called the Christ as the. The body has many members, and yet there's still one body. So also is Christ. [00:11:33] What does that mean? It means that Christ is not only himself personally the head, but his body is now part of him. Cut my head off. Cut my head off. Is my body not Lance Lambert? Is only the head of Lance Lamberthe? No. The head and the body are one entity. [00:11:56] The Lord Jesus is the head. We are the body. We are one entity. This is the thing that Paul wrestled with. Oh, how to express it, how to interpret it, how to explain it. The wonder of the Quran, the wonder of salvation, the wonder of Pentecost. How can he put it into human terms that it's not just that we've become christians, it's not just that we have become saved individuals. We have now been integrated into Christ. [00:12:35] To be Christ centered is to be church centered. [00:12:40] All the many members of that body constitute one entity. They all share one life. They must have one headquarters. [00:12:51] You know as well as I do what happens when the cells of the body cut themselves off from the rest of the body and start to live and develop on their own. I will not mention what it is. Some people don't like the mention. But you know what it is? [00:13:09] It is something which always causes disruption within. It always causes trouble within. If one function of the body tries to cut itself off from all the other functions of the body and starts to work on its own, you know what it is. You can get all kinds of nervous diseases, some vitas, dance, and all the rest of it. That comes simply from different parts. The body starting to act on their own, without having a central headquarters, without being correlated, without the principle of interaction, the body is absolutely worth. To be Christ centered is to be church centered. [00:13:59] It is impossible, practically to be Christ centered and not to be church centered. Of course, we can talk a lot about the Lord, we can bubble about things to do with the Lord, and we can sound as if we're very devoted in all the ways. But unless we are centred in the Lord Jesus in the church, it's not. It's not a practical devotion to the Lord Jesus. [00:14:36] The practice of it lies within the church. No member of the body can have the Lord Jesus head and be at variance with all the other members of the body. No member of the body can make the Lord Jesus absolutely Lord and speak about utter devotion to him, and at the same time be absolutely independent. [00:14:59] It is impossible. It is impossible. [00:15:05] The spiritual, the spiritual disease of Christianity in the 20th century is individualism. [00:15:15] Everyone doing that which is right in his own eyes. We have a whole book of the Old Testament, the book of judges, given to an explanation of chaos, confusion, confusion, disorder, and all the other consequences of every man doing that which is right in his own eyes, because there is no king in the land. [00:15:35] If we speak of the Lord Jesus being head and Lord, then immediately we come in utter obedience to him. But he is head of a body. [00:15:49] The body is not one member. [00:15:52] So many Christians act and function as if they are the only member of the body. The Lord tells them this, the Lord tells them that they do this, they do that, they do the other. [00:16:05] Do you know as well as I do that if I want to do something with my fingers, so often it's got to go through a lot of other members to get there. [00:16:15] There is an interaction, there is a harmony of function, each helping the other. And you will discover, as you read the scriptures, that in nearly every instance of the Lord doing something new. In the early church, it was in felt always. [00:16:38] You will also discover that when people go off on their own, they go out of the record. [00:16:44] They just go to be Christ centered is to be church centered. Can we bear that out in scripture? Am I preaching some kind of heresy? [00:16:57] Am I saying that we should substitute the church for the Lord Jesus and put the church in the place of the Lord Jesus? No, I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that we should rely on a people instead of the law. I'm not saying we should substitute fellowship for fellowship with the Lord. [00:17:16] But what I am saying is this, that wherever you look in the letters of the New Testament, and for that matter anywhere else, you will find that to own the Lord as head means that you've got to be properly related to all the others. Take Colossians one and and verse 18, it speaks to the Lord Jesus being above all in all, through all, everything being for him. And then in verse 18, it says this, he is the head of the body, the church which is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. That in all things he might have the preeminent, the head of the body, the church. That in all things he might have the preeminence. [00:18:08] So to give the Lord Jesus Christ preeminence is to find your place in the body. [00:18:15] To give the Lord Jesus preeminence in all things is to be rightly related to him as head. [00:18:22] If any single member of my body gets into right relationship with the head, it's in right relationship with all the other members of the body. [00:18:30] But the moment it cuts off its right relationship with one headquarters in the head, then trouble will stop in one way or another. [00:18:42] You see what it said? [00:18:44] He is the head of the body. What a little gem in an amazing casket of gems is that one. In this first chapter of Colossians, it tells us very simply that he is the head of the body, which is the church. That in all things he might have the preeminence. Oh, if you read the preceding verse, you will find there are many other things that he is first of and head of and Lord of. But the point is this. You and I, by the grace of God, by the salvation of God, are in the body of the Lord Jesus. The only way that the Lord Jesus can have the preeminence, as far as we are concerned, is to be rightly related to him as head. That simply means this. To be Christ centered is to be church centered. To be Christ centered is to be body centered. That's all to give the Lord his place. Is to give the church his place. [00:19:48] If you will look at Colossians 219. You will have again exactly the same thing. [00:19:58] And not holding fast the head. From whom all the body being supplied. And knit together through the joints and bands. Increaseth with the increase of God. [00:20:10] Now then, mark this. [00:20:13] Holding fast the head. [00:20:15] From whom all the body knit together. [00:20:20] Increaseth with the increase of God. [00:20:24] Underline that. Holding fast the head. [00:20:29] From whom all the body knit together. [00:20:32] Increaseth with the increase of God. Are you growing spiritually? Are you being changed spiritually? [00:20:43] Is something happening in your life spiritually? [00:20:48] If it is, isn't it because you have got yourself rightly related to the head. [00:20:54] And because you're being knit together, there's increase, spiritual increase. [00:21:01] And isn't the opposite true. That if we are at variance with the others. [00:21:08] If the measure of our independence of the rest of the body. Is the measure in which we are not increasing. With the increase of God we may think we are? Many people think that head knowledge is increase. [00:21:24] That the more you pack it up there, spiritually, as it were, the more you're increasing. Oh, believe me, there's no greater fallacy. [00:21:33] You can be a war spiritually, as it were, while you're increasing. Oh, believe me, there's no greater fallacy. [00:21:43] You can be a walking spiritual encyclopedia. There may be no real increase of God. [00:21:52] You can learn about spiritual things, scriptural things, doctrinal things. In the same way that any other person can do to a university or a library. Or take a few books and get down and with a bit of hard slogging. Learn a few things. [00:22:09] Spiritual increase is the measure in which you have become like Christ. [00:22:13] The measure in which there is a transformation within a measure. In which you are becoming related to others. [00:22:22] I say again, to be Christ centered. Is to be church centered. To be body centered. In every instance in these letters where it talks of the increase of God. It speaks of being. Growing up into the head. Or being joined properly to the head. And being knit together. [00:22:40] Then again, if you look at Colossians three, verse ten and verse eleven. You have again another scripture. And have put on the new man. That is being renewed unto knowledge. After the image of him. That where there cannot be greek and jew. Circumcision. Uncircumcision. Barbarian, Syrian, Bondman, Freeman. But Christ is all and in all. What does this mean? [00:23:05] What does this mean? This new man is not an individual. [00:23:10] It's original. Every aspect of the new man. Every. Every member of the new man is original. It has a part to play no one else can play. [00:23:21] But just wait. [00:23:23] Christ is all. [00:23:26] And in all, it simply means this, that if Christ is to become everything and in everyone, we've got to be in the new man, we've got to be rightly related to the head. To be centred in Christ is to be church centered. Then in Ephesians 122, this is in many ways an explanation of that last scripture, last part of that verse, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all. In all, the church is the fullness of Christ, who fills everything in everyone. [00:24:21] Got it? The church is the fullness of Christ. What an amazing revelation. The body is the fullness of the head. Do you understand what we're getting at now? [00:24:34] The body is the fullness of the head. Cut my head off, you can't do much with it. Oh, yes, the intelligence is up there, the brain's up there, the tongue's up there, the eyes are up there, the ears are up there. Everything that's needed for life as far as animate life for talking, conversation, expression, animation, it's all up here. But cut the head off, it's got nothing. Now then, join the body to the head. [00:25:07] This body becomes the fullness of the head. It becomes the completeness of the head. It becomes the means by which the head can express fully its thought. Do you understand? The head on its own can do very little. [00:25:25] The body without the head can do nothing. [00:25:30] And the head without the body can do it. [00:25:34] They both need each other. Now then, look at this scripture again. He is hid over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him. The church is the fullness of Christ, who filleth everything and everyone. [00:25:52] You know what that suggests? [00:25:55] If you want to be filled with Christ, you've got track it into your place in the body. [00:26:02] You've got to be in your place in the body. [00:26:06] You've got to be rightly related to the others. [00:26:11] To be Christ centered is to be found within the church. [00:26:17] And then again in ephesians four and verse 15 and 16, this was going to be read to us this morning. Another brother had this faith on his heart. [00:26:32] Speaking truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head, even Christ, from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplier, according to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love. [00:26:51] What is this? [00:26:54] All the members growing up into the head, and as they grow up into the head, the measure in which they are knit together and joined together, and the measure in which they work and function, they minister to each other, will be the measure in which the body grows up, the body expands, the body matures. [00:27:20] To be Christ centered is to be chap centered. [00:27:24] I'm going to leave it there. Just one or two more points I want to make on this particular point. I'm going to leave it at that point, not any others. [00:27:34] It simply means this, that if Christ is going to be central in our lives with God, to put the church, give the church its right place, theres no such thing as the bunk that some people talk about, that you can be rightly related to the Lord. Burial with the rest of the people of God, its bunk. [00:27:59] You may not see eyes wide with your brothers and sisters, thats a different matter, but you can wash each others feet. [00:28:12] There is a place in which we can just let go of our own ideas and viewpoints and everything else and simply be together. [00:28:26] Why do the epistles put so much upon husbands and wives, parents and children, children, employers and employees? [00:28:42] Because the whole question of the centrality of Christ is bound up with our seeing that we are the body of Christ, and that the body of Christ is found in expression, not when we meet together, but wherever we are. Consequently, if there's disorder in the home, there's disorder in the church. If there's disorder between ourselves and our employer, there's disorder in the church. If there's disorder between an employer and employees, the same is true. Husbands and wives, wives and husbands, children and parents, parents and children. All this is part of the church. [00:29:26] And it's a question of whether these realms, what we call our home, family life, or what we call our business life, whether they are related to Christ in the church. That's what it means to be church centered. It simply means that your home has been brought into the place where it is rightly related to Christ. Corporate, just like every tent under the old covenant was given its position around the tabernacle, no one was allowed to choose. Everyone was given a place, and everything had as its center, as its focal point, the tabernacle in the midst. [00:30:19] You cannot have the Lord Jesus as head of your home. [00:30:24] If your home is not rightly related to the church. [00:30:29] You can't have the Lord Jesus Christ as head of your work, where you are at work. If your business, your work, your life at work, your employment is not rightly related to the church. [00:30:46] That's the importance of seeing this whole question. [00:30:50] I think so often we children of God have got this idea that when we meet together, we're the church. When we sing hymns, we're the church. When we pray, we're the church. When we have the Lord's table, we're the church. But then as soon as we go back home, the church has ceased to be. And now we are at home. [00:31:11] And when we go to work, the judge has ceased to be. Now we are at work. [00:31:16] Why does Paul call always in his epistles? First he speaks about relationships in the church. Then he always goes on to husbands and wives and husbands and children and parents and parents and children. Then he always goes on to masters and slaves or employers and employees and employees and employers. [00:31:37] Why? Why not leave unsaid, Paul, goodness graciously, aren't we all intelligent enough to be able to govern our own homes? Everyone else will be doing it thousands of years. They don't have to have letters written, Paul, about it. [00:31:49] We can get on with it. [00:31:54] That's just the point. You see, we have been made one body. [00:31:59] We are members of the body. [00:32:02] You are not only a member of the body when you come in that front door, you are a member of the body. When you're at the kitchen sink or when you're nursing a baby or when you're at work at a factory bench or an office, in an office, you're always a member of the body. You can never get away from the that. You are a member of the body. You are part of the body. And the wonder of the body is this, that it doesn't need actually to be sitting together to function spiritually. It can function when the members are actually in their different places of work and home. [00:32:49] So I want you to see, just sit with it. If the Lord Jesus is absolutely central, the church must have its place as well. You can't divide the church. You can't say, the Lord is there, the church is there. [00:33:05] The Lord is the head of the church, which is his body. Give the head its right place. Give the body its right place. And once you see that principle, then your home, your work, your leisure, everything else falls in its right place. It's not that the Lord wants to make, as it were, meetings. [00:33:26] Give them a place to the detriment of the home, to the detriment of our employment, places of employment to the detriment of even leisure. No, that's untrue. People have got this weird idea that you put the Lord in his right place and therefore the body in its right place. [00:33:49] You put first things first and you will find a strange order begins to develop in the home. A strange order comes into the place of work. There's more time of leisure instead of less. In many ways, there's more peace within. You can have a lot of leisure and there's no peace within. And therefore people have got no measure. You put the Lord in his right place and in the body, and you'll discover that everything else falls like right. That's all we can say this morning. Take the head away. You've got a headless body. What can you do with it? Take the functions out of the body. Fling them all over the place. What can they do? Many of us are just like that now. The Lord help us to see that we need to be built together, knit together, in order that we may grow up into the head. Give the head its rightful place, and then we shall discover that increase all round and order in everything else. May the Lord help us.