Before we get started today let's run over our newest memory Scripture and review one of our past memory Scriptures!
Romans 12:4-5 (new)
“Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”
Ephesians 2:8-10 (review)
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.
“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Please open your Bibles to Romans 12:1-5 which we will read in a few minutes.
Last week we started to take a look at our new memory Scripture – Romans 12:4-5
This is an amazing Scripture of the interdependence that Jesus has built into the very fabric and nature of His body on earth; the church.
We also saw that the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul gave us the path to achieving that interdependence.
Step 1 – Romans 12:1 – Our lives should be devoted to the Lord – a living sacrifice
Step 2 – Romans 12:2 – Allow the Lord to transform our minds
Step 3 – Romans 12:3 – Be humble and not prideful
Today we’ll be taking a look at what the Word of the Lord says about the church, the Body of Christ.
With that in mind let’s go ahead and read Romans 12:1-5
OK, so our new memory Scripture says,
Romans 12:4-5
“Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”
Do you remember last week talking about how in America independence, individuality and self-sufficiency are highly regarded traits.
Phrases such as:
- I’m a self-made man
- Control your own destiny or someone else will …
- Above all, be the hero of your life, not the victim …
- “Freedom (n.): To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.”
- “I am an American; free born and free bred, where I acknowledge no man as my superior ....”
This “it’s all about me” concept has ravaged the church in America.
How do we see that concept demonstrated among many who profess to be Christians?
One way is with sentences that start with
“I don’t need the church to …” or “I don’t need to go to church to …”
… be a good Christian
… worship
Those statements may be true if you are home bound or in a nursing home where no church service is available or if you are in solitary confinement in prison but what about a person who claims to be a Christian and who has the freedom to worship with other Christians; what about them?
As always, we look to God’s Holy Word; what does the Bible say?
First of all we see our current memory Scripture …
Romans 12:4-5
“Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”
This same truth is revealed in many other Scriptures such as ...
1 Corinthians 10:17, 12:12-13, 12:20 - Ephesians 3:6, 4:4, 4:25 - Colossians 3:15
There is a distinct difference between the church and individual followers of Jesus Christ. The kingdom of God on earth is made up of Jesus as the head and the church as the body and the church is made up of individual followers of Jesus Christ who are interdependent on the Lord and other believers.
What did the apostles do in every town, village or city where people came to know Jesus as their Savior?
1) They established a church
2) Stayed long enough to disciple those whom the Lord would call to be leaders
3) Ordained elders and deacons (overseers) to oversee the local church
OK, so they established churches and organized those churches with overseers.
Where were churches established in the New Testament?
Alexandria, Crete, Pella, Antioch (Pisidia), Cyprus, Philippi, Antioch (Syria), Cyrene, Ptolemais, Athens, Damascus, Puteoli, Babylon, Derbe, Rome, Berea, Hierepolis, Sidon, Capernaum, Iconium, Tarsus, Caesarea, Jerusalem, Thessalonica, Cenchrea, Joppa, Troas, Colosse, Lydda, Tyre, Corinth, Lystra
Those are only the ones that made it into the Bible.
OK, so they set up churches with overseers. What else did they do?
Well, they taught the churches how to be churches; they instructed them, encouraged them and corrected them as was needed through personal visits and letters.
The books of Romans, 1st & 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st & 2nd Thessalonians were all written to specific churches as well as to be circulated among other churches whenever possible.
The books of Hebrews, James, 1st & 2nd Peter, 1st, 2nd & 3rd John, and, Jude are all letters to be circulated throughout the churches.
And, the books of 1st & 2nd Timothy and Titus are letters to pastors to teach them how to guide and serve the church.
What else does the Bible say about the church?
One of the instructions to overseers, pastors, elders and deacons found in
Acts 20:28 is this …
“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood.”
WHICH HE BOUGHT WITH HIS OWN BLOOD!
Do you think the church is important to Jesus?
What do you think Jesus, who bought the church with His own blood, thinks about the statement that starts with, “I don’t need the church …”?
The church in persecution …
On the day that Stephen, the first martyr for Jesus, was put to death by stoning a great persecution broke out against the church and the persecution became even greater under the fist of Nero.
Near Rome many Christians lived in underground burial caves called catacombs and it was there that they often worshiped.
Similarly in many muslim and communist countries Christians must meet in secret to keep from being arrested, imprisoned, tortured and, perhaps, put to death.
One of the songs I love to sing is, “Shout to the Lord, all the earth, let us sing; power and majesty, praise to the King. Mountains bow down and the seas will roar at the sound of Your Name!” I LOVE IT because I Love HIM!
Now, just imagine the persecuted church singing this song in a voice that is just above a whisper because if they are overheard they will die.
(At this point go out into the congregation and have the people sing the first verse of Amazing Grace just above a whisper.)
Now just imagine the church meeting in the catacombs with perhaps a partial copy of one of the letters to the churches or part of a Gospel, or, imagine an secret church in North Korea where they may have one page of a Bible and no one is sitting in the back but everyone is crowded around the person who is reading the same verses they have heard for the past three years because that is all they have and the reader is reading in a whisper and the listeners are straining to hear with all their might because it is the Word of the Lord.
(At this point go out into the congregation and read Romans 12:4-5 in a hoarse whisper)
Do you think anyone of those believers would EVER start a sentence with, “I don’t need to go to church to …”?
Here’s another question.
What is the punishment for someone committing rebellious sin in a church that is found in the Bible?
1 Corinthians 5:9-13
“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people - not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.
“But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a believer but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
“What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. ‘Expel the wicked person from among you.’”
Not being allowed to go to church;THAT is punishment!
In 1 Corinthians 5:5 the church is instructed to, “hand this man over to satan …” because he was prideful of the sin he was committing and it was destroying the church, the witness of the church and his very own soul.
That is punishment!
Those who say they don’t need the church either do not understand the Word of the Lord or they do understand the Word of the Lord and are living in rebellion against the Word and the will of the Lord!
Why is the Lord so harsh against those who willfully bring sin into the church?
The Lord hates infections; spiritual infections.
An untreated infection can kill you. Unrepentant arrogant sinners can kill a church.
That is why the Lord is so harsh and tells us to deal firmly with such.
That is punishment!
So, if being outside the church is punishment in the Bible, why is it considered a perfectly normal way of life by some who call themselves Christians?
Two reasons:
That person either does not know or does not care about what the Bible teaches
Or …
Many churches do not know or do not care about what the Bible teaches so it becomes irrelevant and has no effect on peoples' spiritual lives and it becomes seemingly unnecessary.
The bottom line is that if we truly love the Lord and if we truly love His Holy Word we will continuously look into the Word of God and ask Him to teach us what it says and how to live according to what it says.
And when and if we do that we will look at Scriptures like
Romans 12:4-5
“Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” It will teach us something …
If we are really “in Christ” and we truly understand that obedience to Him requires a interconnectedness in the body of believers then our desire will be to please Him by being a functioning member of the Body of Christ, the church.
There is a popular phrase which I quite frankly despise. I think it is well meaning and I’ve even heard it on Family Life Network and that phrase is, “Don’t go to church, be the church.”
There is a slightly better version that says, “Don’t JUST go to church, be the church.”
We, individually, are not called to be the church. Instead we are called to be fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. And, as fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ we have a natural longing and desire to come together with other fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ as members of His body, the church.
When we come together with other fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ as members of the body of Christ we belong to Him and to one another and it is a beautiful thing.
I have friends and family who proclaim that they are followers of Jesus Christ but do not attend church.
They may speak the words of a Christian, they may do the works of a Christian but you cannot love Jesus and willfully neglect or outright reject the body of Christ.
The two things are incompatible and unbiblical.
So when I pray for those friends and family members I pray that they will come to Christ in repentance and find the blessedness that comes with obedience to the Word of God and especially to our memory Scripture:
Romans 12:4-5
“Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”
I am sure that all of us have some friends or family who are living in this very condition of rejecting the Word of the Lord to be faithful parts of the body of Christ.
Warning … Those who profess to be followers of Jesus but claim they don’t need the church will be in great danger of having their children reject Jesus outright unless the Lord brings a faithful witness into their lives.
This is a fearful thing and should make parents tremble who claim they have no need for the church. For they will stand before the Lord to answer for this.
Let’s be sure to include them in our prayers as well as those who outright deny Christ.
Next week we’ll be looking at some of the ways we belong to one another and how that works.
Benediction:
Jude 1:24-25
“To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy - to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
