Disclaimer:
Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording, including sermon titles, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these sermons. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copied and/or quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Pastor James May
WORKING TOGETHER AS ONE BODY – Part III
(A continuation of teaching concerning the Body of Christ)
By Rev. James May
Whether we move from one local church to another under the direction of the Holy Spirit, or we do so because of our own desires, there is always a time of adjustment and healing that must come. Both those who move and those who stay are affected adversely, regardless of the reasons and circumstances.
Have you ever wondered why it is that the church suffers so much when people move from one local church to another without the leading of God? Have you wondered why there is often so much pain and so much turmoil left in their wake as they walk out the door?
Illustration:
If you have ever been on boat in the water you will see that the boat leaves a wake in the water that can be seen as a trail for some time after the boat has gone. First there are the waves that ripple out from the bow and sides. Then there is a turbulent area where the prop has stirred the waters fiercely to propel the boat forward. It takes time and the effects of nature upon the water to bring it back into a state of calmness. That same effect is felt in the local church whenever a part of the body is removed for the wrong reason.
It’s hard for the church to see people go and leave an empty space in their place. Even when God moves us it is sometimes a hard adjustment to make, but when we move ourselves it is far worse and has a much greater negative impact upon the church.
Let’s take a look at the human body for a moment and see if we can draw some similarities to the condition of the church. Perhaps it will help us to better understand what is happening in the church and why things are the way they are. This is by no means an in-depth study of the workings of the human body. Without medical expertise it would be impossible for me to make such comparisons, so please excuse me for being over simplistic.
The human body has a head that contains the mechanism for thought, control, sight, sound, hearing and giving direction for the rest of the body. The head with the brain and sensory powers and organs that are part of it is like the Lord Jesus Christ to the Body of Christ at the local church. Without the head, the body dies. Without the head there is no vision, we can’t hear from God, we can’t understand God’s Word and the rest of the body just simply dies. The brain is the controlling factor of everything that the body is able to perform.
Just as the body dies without a head, so does the church die spiritually without the Lord as its head. None of us has the intelligence, the direction or the skill to build anything spiritual in nature without the Lord in control. Our best efforts are nothing to him. It is not our hands alone, or our feet alone, or our voice alone that accomplishes his work. We are only effective as he gives us the anointing to work, to walk and to speak for him.
Remember Zechariah’s words, …not by power, not by might, but by his spirit.
The part of the body that connects the body to the head is the neck with its spinal column that contains all of the nerves that bring signals to the entire body to make every part function.
As the blood blows from the Head, down through the body and is pumped through the body by the heart it brings life giving oxygen and carries away the impurities left over through the breath.
In the Body of Christ, the blood of Christ has purchased his church and it is his blood and the Holy Spirit that flows in the church through its various members that bring life and energy.
The neck is the conduit for all activity from the head to the body.
I will liken the neck of the human body to the Pastor of the local church and to the 5-fold ministry of the church. It is through their direction, under the headship of Jesus Christ, that all ministry in the local church must be directed and maintained regardless of where it is in the body or what it’s purpose is for existing.
God has foreordained that each local church have a Pastor, or an overseer – a shepherd over the flock or whatever terminology you wish to use. The bottom line is that nothing that will effect the welfare of the entirety of the local body is supposed to operate without his knowledge or approval under God.
Does that mean that I or anyone else who serves as the Pastor of a local church should have absolute control over every move you make? Of course it doesn’t mean that! I am here as a servant to lead, to instruct, to guide, to direct, to maintain, but not to order you around like a boss or a king.
The neck is nothing more than a conduit that aids the head to stay connected to the body, and relays the signals that controls the body, so that the body can maintain contact with the head. The neck doesn’t control what the fingers do, the head does. The neck doesn’t control what the hands, feet, arms or any other part of the body does. The head controls and gives direction, not the neck.
So what effect should the neck have in the body of Christ through the Pastor? The pastor is, or at least should be, the first to get spiritual direction and pass it along. The Pastor is the first pass along whatever comes from God to the church and then is there to watch over the dissemination of what God has given to the rest of the body.
He is a servant to both and yet is in a place where he must have pre-imminence over whatever else happens in the local body because he is the conduit for God’s blessing and direction. He is given the overall direction for the local church. He is given the general direction that the body is take in the accomplishing of the will of God for that body. He is the first to be given the overall vision for what the local church is to do and then will make every attempt to pass that vision along to the individual members.
Once his mission is accomplished it is the head that sends the signal to the individual parts of the body to do their work.
As long as the neck is in place and doing what it is supposed to do then the body can move easily and accomplish its work, but if the neck is cut off or it becomes broken, then the whole body will quickly suffer.
That is why most churches do not survive a pastor who has lost touch with God without a major split or the closing of the church doors at least for a while. The only reason that any Christian will remain faithful to God even when the Pastor is a false teacher is that they have their own personal nerve connection to the head, Jesus Christ.
It is important that all of us keep our connection to Jesus strong. You never know when the neck will stop doing its job, get swollen with a big ego, or become apathetic towards the voice of God and/or the needs of the local body. That’s why we must also prove every word that is preached from the pulpit. Not only will the head speak to and through the neck but he also speaks to the individual members and we should all be hearing the same basic message and it must agree with God’s unchanging Word.
From the neck we go to the rest of the body consisting of all of the internal organs, reproductive organs, arms, legs, feet, hands, etc.
Each one of those organs has its personally assigned task to perform. If only one part of the body is sick or hurts, the whole body knows it and feels it.
How many of you have seen your own heart? Hopefully none of you have or ever will, but you know its there and if it is hurting you know it instantly.
The church has a heart too. The heart of the church is the anointing power of the Holy Spirit. With the anointing, approving hand of God operating in the church, the Spirit will continually flow and bless our efforts. But we must keep that anointing.
How can we lose that anointing? We will grieve the Spirit and lose that anointing through disobedience. When we fail to pray; when we are unfaithful to the house of God; when we are self centered and not God centered; when we fail to study his Word; and when we are playing around with any kind of sin, we are grieving the Holy Spirit and the anointing will cease to flow and, in effect, it is as though the church as heart failure.
There is only one remedy for heart failure – quick and effective action to revive it and to bring a healing process into play.
That’s why we must be in a constant state of prayer and be ready to repent quickly of every sin or failure that comes into our lives. We cannot afford to lose the anointing or the body will die quickly. Without the anointing, and the moving of the Holy Spirit, death will be speedy and the church will die spiritually as God writes Ichabod, “the Spirit has departed” across the front door. We may continue on as a congregation that has no power and no effect upon our community for a while but eventually even that will die.
The human body does not die all at once. It happens as each individual organ shuts down. Little by little death comes over the body until finally the breath of life ceases, the blood stops flowing and the brain ceases to operate. That’s the point of death. There may still be some movement in the fingers or other areas due to nerves that are dying but the life is gone already and it won’t be long until everything stops completely.
There are a lot of churches that are in the different stages of spiritual death and don’t even know it. There are also a lot of Christians who are walking down that same path spiritually.
But death is not always the only problem that a body can have. It’s only the final problem. There are plenty of indications along the way that tell us that our time for this life to be over is surely coming. We can’t afford to ignore those warning signs if we want to heal the body and prolong our life. It is the same way in the church.
When the body is ill it is usually because one or more of its members are not doing what is necessary to fulfill its duty to God. Sometimes it is an infection from an outside source and at other times it is a breakdown in the communication with the head or some internal disease that is taking hold.
The local church follows that same pattern as well.
The church begins to hurt when someone who is supposed to do a work begins to be unfaithful. Our own church has seen a lot of this, as most churches have. We must understand that no matter what our task is that God has given to us, no matter whether it seems to be a small, insignificant think to us, it is absolutely important for the health of the church.
Suppose the bottom edge of your lung decides to just quit processing oxygen, what do you think will happen? Lung cancer will begin to form. Suppose the little toe decides to stop being a little toe, what will happen? It won’t be long until it will have to be removed or it will poison the whole body. What about if your fingernail decides to fall off and leave, what will that do? It will injure the finger when it leaves and then leave the finger exposed to further injury and believe me the whole body will know when it leaves.
You see, there is no unimportant job in the church just as there is no unimportant job in the body for its members.
Just allow the toilets to stop up and see how much the church will hurt. Just allow the A/C units or the heaters to stop and see how much it hurts the body. Just allow the floors to stay dirty or the dust to gather in heaps and see if the body won’t notice. Just let one part of any ministry go undone and the whole body will begin to suffer as a result.
Now what happens when a part of the body becomes ill? We go to the doctor in most cases and seek his help. He gives us therapy, medicine, and, in extreme cases, performs surgery to correct or remove the problem with the part of the body that is ill.
None of us like to go to the doctor, mainly because we don’t have the patience to wait upon him or her for the help we need because of our busy schedules, and secondly because we may be afraid of what they might have to do to treat us. I don’t know about you but I don’t like shots, blood tests or examinations, as necessary as they may be. I will stay sick a lot longer sometimes than I could have because I think that the cure is worse than the sickness.
Well it’s like that with the church too. How many times have we allowed the body of Christ to suffer and to remain ill because we didn’t want to face the problem or hear what the cure is? Let’s just wait and let it cure itself. Sometimes the sickness is like a cold that will eventually go away on its own through the power of the body to heal itself that is given to each member but God but at other times it becomes worse and becomes life threatening. That’s when God has to step in do some spiritual surgery and that’s never fun.
I sometimes think that the church is in a constant condition of having a spiritual cold. There is always something in the church that seems to make it feel just a little ill. Perhaps it is the Spirit of God that is constantly reminding us that we are nothing without him and that we must be on constant guard against allowing outside infections to enter in.
I also believe that this happens because there are always those in the body who are not where they need to be with the Lord. Slackness in our faithfulness and dedication or commitment to our Lord brings about a “spiritual fever” that lets the whole body know there is trouble somewhere. We can’t always put our finger right on the problem but we know it’s there. That’s why we must remain in a condition of praying without ceasing for one another. We never know what our brother or sister in Christ are facing so let’s pray for them to be released from the attacks of Satan upon their souls.
1 Thessalonians 5:17, "Pray without ceasing."
Acts 12:5, "Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him."
