The Body Of Christ Series

Grove Street was lined with lovely mature trees, manicured lawns, and three churches—all right next to each other. The three churches were each built in different styles and shapes, but they each posted a sign out front, proudly displaying the name of the church. The three churches were named First Community Church, Second Community Church, and Third Community Church.

One day the pastors of these three houses of worship all happened to meet on the sidewalk in front of their churches. Said one pastor to the others, "Maybe we need to define what we mean by community” (Ed Koehler, The Best Cartoons from Leadership Journal, Volume 1, Broadman & Holman, 1999; www.Preaching Today.com).

What DO we mean by community? Churches sometimes have trouble with the concept, but God designed the church to come together for His glory. So how do we make that happen? How do we get along to enhance the reputation of Christ in Rice County? Or as the Apostle Paul put it in Ephesians 4, how do we “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3) when we’re so different?

If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Corinthians 12, where the Bible addresses how to maintain unity in the body when there is so much diversity.

1 Corinthians 12:12-13 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit (ESV).

No matter your race, no matter your socio-economic status, God’s Spirit has immersed every believer into one body, the body of Christ. The word “baptized” literally means “immersed,” so the moment you put your trust in Christ, God’s Spirit immerses you into a world-wide community of believers known as the church. Black or white, rich or poor, young or old, male or female, every believer belongs to the one body of Christ, and every believer has the one Holy Spirit dwelling within. So start there to enjoy community in the church.

ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU BELONG TO ONE BODY.

Recognize that one Spirit has placed you into one church with every other believer in the world. Accept the fact that despite your differences, God has put you together in a single organism, whose survival depends on every part learning to work together.

The Pentecostal/Charismatic movement has certainly had its excesses, and some within the movement have incorrectly associated tongues with the baptism of the Spirit. Even so, God has used the Movement in a powerful way to bring millions of people all around the world into the body of Christ.

The movement began at Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas, on January 1, 1901, when a handful of students, after a New Year’s Eve prayer vigil, had an extraordinary experience with the Spirit and began to speak in tongues.

The school closed less than a year later and its founder, Charles Parham, moved to Houston, Texas, where he started another Bible school. One of the students in that school was William J. Seymour, an African American. In 1906, God used him to launch the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles, California, from where the Pentecostal movement spread around the world (https://romans1015.com/1901-topeka-outpouring).

In the decade prior to 1906, lynchings of African Americans in America had skyrocketed. Historians estimate that well over one thousand blacks, mainly men, were lynched—hanged, shot or sometimes buried alive—in the United States. On top of that, millions of people in the United States had joined the Ku Klux Klan.

However, in 1906, God poured out his Spirit in a powerful revival at the Azusa Street mission in Los Angeles, California. Under William Seymour’s leadership, tens of thousands of people from all over the world and all walks of life—rich, poor, men, women, Americans, non-Americans, black, white, Asian, Latino—came by car, by horse and buggy, by train and by boat. They all encountered the Spirit. In a year of lynchings, blacks and whites were embracing each other as beloved brothers and sisters in Christ. Frank Bartleman, a historian of the Azusa Street Revival, said, “The color line is washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ!” (Rich Nathan, Both-And, IVP Books, 2013, page 48; www.PreachingToday.com).

That’s what the Holy Spirit does! He breaks down the barriers and brings different kinds of people together in one family. So if you want to enjoy community in that diverse family, acknowledge that you, as a believer, belong to that family; recognize that you are part of one body, the body of Christ.

20 years ago (2002), 20th Century Fox produced Drumline, a movie which explores the development of Devon Miles, a talented hip-hop percussionist from Harlem. He receives a full-ride scholarship to Atlanta A&T University to play in the marching band, which is very different than the hip-hop street drumming to which he’s accustomed.