The Church, the Body of Christ

Part 1

By Pastor Dan Kennedy, Brinnon Community Church

©January 31, 2010

www.pastorkennedy.com


The New Testament Church is an assembly of those who have been transformed by the power of the Spirit of God, each being a unique and specifically gifted member of the Body of Christ.  Each person in Christ’s Universal Church has been redeemed from his or her sins by God’s grace through faith in the atoning Blood of Christ, and has experienced a spiritual new birth, giving them strength to live as God desires and a hope of heaven in Christ’s eternal Kingdom. 


From the beginning of time until the end of the final age, from every ethnic group, language, people, and nation, God has been bringing together His glorious Bride! (Rev. 5:9; 7:9; 14:6)


The format of this message will be unique, in that it will primarily be in the form of questions and answers.  I have help from some children and what they have built with their Lego blocks to illustrate the various aspects of the message.


Let’s begin our study by learning about the Old Testament history, which was the foundation of the New Testament Church.


Question:  Who were the first human beings to experience the Glory and Presence of God?


oAnswer: Adam and Eve were clothed with and experienced daily the Glory and Presence of God.  They were the “place” of God’s Sanctuary on earth, in the beginning.  God met with them and communed with them.  There was no need for a meeting place to discuss how God wanted them to live.  They simply lived as God desired because they had not sinned and were clothed with God’s Presence.

Genesis 1:26-31; 2:3-3:24


  1.     Man and Woman were created sinless, in the Image of God.

  2. They communed directly with God and were clothed in God’s Glory


Matthew 17:2 (What clothed Jesus at His transfiguration?)

2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.


Psalm 104:1b-2 (What “clothes” God?)

1b…You are clothed with splendor and majesty,

2 covering yourself with light as with a garment….


  1. When mankind sinned what happened?

When mankind sinned they lost communion with God, and the covering of God’s Glory, which caused them to become naked and die, spiritually and physically, plunging the whole world and all the descendents that followed them, into the curse of depravity.


Question:  How did the immediate descendants of Adam and Eve, who were faithful to God, worship God – to gain a sense of His Presence, cleansing and favor?


oAnswer:  At individual altars where they sacrificed ceremonially clean animals to God.  Offering a blood sacrifice as a picture pointing to the coming Lamb of God, who, with His Blood, would be the provision to take away the sin of the world!


Question:  Where was the Glory and Presence of God first seen by the Israelites as a nation?


oAnswer:  On Mt. Sinai when God gave them the 10 Commandments.


Exodus 19:16-20

16 On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. 19 And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. 20 The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.1 (See also Hebrews 12:18-24)


Question:  What was the sacred tent that the Israelites took with them in the wilderness, in which the Glory and Presence of God dwelt?


oAnswer:  Exodus 26. In Moses’ day the place where the Glory of God resided was the Tabernacle – the sacred “Tent of Meeting”. 


Question:  On what particular piece of furniture, did the glory of God rest?


oAnswer:  1 Samuel 4:3-8.  The Ark of the Covenant (Ex. 25) was the place where the glory of God rested.  Inside the Ark of the Covenant were the stone tablets on which God had written the 10 Commandments, and over the Law was placed “the Mercy Seat” (between the two golden Cherubim) where the Glory and Presence of God rested.


Question:  Was the “Tabernacle” sacred because it was a special tent with special furnishings, or was it sacred because of something else?


oAnswer:  No, the Tabernacle was only special because the Glory and Presence of God rested there.  The “Tent of Meeting”, or Tabernacle was the tent that physically protected the Ark of the Covenant on which the Glory of God rested and the other sacred furnishing which Moses was instructed to construct – furnishings, which were an earthly replica of the Heavenly Temple (Heb. 9:23).  The furnishings were only replicas of Heavenly things.  It was God’s Presence that made them sacred.  It was the place where Moses and the Israelites spoke with God.


As we studied above, the first place where human beings experienced the Glorious Presence of God was in the Garden of Eden.  Those seeking God, after man sinned, sought God through personal sacrificial offerings.  When God gave His Law to the Israelites He included, with the Law, an earthly pattern of the heavenly Temple.  This was initially established in a “Tent of Meeting” with God.  It could not be stationary like the Temple would be, but instead the Tabernacle was moveable, to go along with the Israelites as they traveled through the wilderness.  It was a transportable place of worship for the Israelites, where the Presence and Glory of God rested.


Exodus 40:34-38

34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35 And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 36 Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. 37 But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. 38 For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.


Question:  What happened to the “tent” of the Tabernacle, when Solomon built the Temple? 


oAnswer:  The Tabernacle was then no longer considered to be the “holy” place, because the Glory of God came into the Temple, which Solomon built.  The Ark of the Covenant, located in the Holy of Holies, representing the Glory of God, was transferred into Solomon’s Temple, as were the other furnishings that had been fashioned after the Heavenly pattern given to Moses by God.  We do not know what happened to the physical tent covering once all the furniture was removed and placed in the Temple.


2 Chronicles 7:1-2 The Glory of God Fills the Temple

As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. 2 And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house.


Question:  What made the Tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple special places of worship?


oAnswer:  The Presence and Glory of God was there!


Question:  What happened to Solomon’s Temple and the temple that Herod built?


oAnswer:  The Babylonians destroyed Solomon’s Temple in 586 BC.  Titus and the Romans destroyed the second temple, commonly known as Herod’s Temple, in 70 AD.


Question: Why was there a destruction of the Jewish temples, which Solomon built and which Herod built – in which the presence of God rested?


oAnswer:  Read the Scriptures below before you answer:


God’s Conditional Promise to King Solomon

1 Kings 9:4-9

4 And as for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, 5 then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’ 6 But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 8 And this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ 9 Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore the Lord has brought all this disaster on them.”


Manasseh was a wicked and godless king who brought terrible destruction on Israel

2 Kings 21:9b-16 

9 …and Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations had done whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.

10 And the Lord said by his servants the prophets, 11 “Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these abominations and has done things more evil than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols, 12 therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. 13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. 14 And I will forsake the remnant of my heritage and give them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies, 15 because they have done what is evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.”

16 Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides the sin that he made Judah to sin so that they did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.


Question:  Are all Tabernacles, Temples, Churches or places of worship always sacred?


oAnswer:  We sometimes think that a place is sacred because it is called a Tabernacle, Temple, Church, or place of worship.  A building or place of worship in itself cannot be sacred, because it is only God’s Presence in a place that makes it truly sacred.  God was with Adam and Eve in the beginning.  They both were set apart and sacred because they were able to commune with God and be surrounded and clothed in His Glory.  When Adam and Eve sinned they lost the personal Glory and Presence of God.  The Tabernacle and Temple were only sacred because of God’s Presence and Glory.  The Glory and Presence of God left the Tabernacle and Temples before they stopped being used or were destroyed.


Question:  What do you think God’s goal, from the beginning, has been:


Answer:

1.To have His Presence and Glory in a building or place of worship

OR

2.To have His Presence and Glory indwell His People?


Question:  What happened to the Temple curtain that protected the Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant, when Jesus died on the cross, which began to reveal the New Covenant…and the New Testament Church?


oAnswer:  Matthew 27:51.  The curtain protecting the Ark of the Covenant was torn in two – giving direct access to the Holy of Holies – the Place where God’s Presence and Glory rested!  Does that give us a clue as to what God was going to have happen with the New Testament Church?


The New Testament Church


Question:  How does God want His Presence and Glory to be revealed in the New Testament Church today?


oAnswer:  In His People.


Question:  How does the Book of Acts reveal the truth that God wants His Presence and Glory to be revealed in His People?


oAnswer:  At the Holy Spirit’s coming at Pentecost.


Acts 2:1-4

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.


Question:  Are there other passages of Scripture that reveal God’s desire for His Presence and Glory to be revealed directly to His People…the New Testament Church?


oAnswer:  Your body is a Temple of the Holy Spirit!


1 Corinthians 6:19-20

19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.


oAnswer:  Christ IN you the Hope of Glory!


Colossians 1:26-29

26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.


oAnswer:  Jesus said we could partake of Living Water – Spiritual water that would give us daily sustenance…He was referring to the Holy Spirit who would be coming at Pentecost.


John 4:10 – (To the woman at the well of Samaria…)

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”


John 7:37-39 – (At the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths)

37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.


Question: How can God’s Church Universal be visible in such a diverse and spread out world?


oAnswer:  The Local Gathering of Believers in Christ.  From the time of the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, it was not the place or the building that the Church met that was sacred…it was the people who had been transformed in New Birth, by the Power of the Holy Spirit…people who belong to the Lord, who are gathered together.  One spiritual Church, under Christ, with individual units of people, in whom the Spirit of Christ dwells.


Romans 16:1; 3-5

1I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae

3 Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, 4 who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. 5 Greet also the church in their house.


1 Corinthians 16:19

19 The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord.


Colossians 4:15-16

15 Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. 16 And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea.


Question:  Why is there such diversity in the Church?  What is one of the Scriptural pictures of the Church that Christ gives us?


oAnswer:  The Body of Christ, as the Church is spoken of, has many parts, but one Body!  This is spoken of in three distinct passages of Scripture.


Romans 12:3-8

3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.


1 Corinthians 12:4-31

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

One Body with Many Members

12 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. 13 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.

14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts.

And I will show you a still more excellent way. (This then leads into 1 Corinthians 13)...If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal....


Ephesians 4

4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says,

“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,

and he gave gifts to men.”


9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.


Question:  Who is the Head of the Church?


oAnswer:  Ephesians 1:22; 4:15; Colossians 1:15-20

Jesus Christ is the Head of the Body; the Head of the Church!


Conclusion


Question: What then is a Biblical Church? 

The following is my stumbling attempt to succinctly write down an earthly definition of a profoundly spiritual mystery…try writing down your own definition of the Church!


oAnswer:  The New Testament Church is an assembly of those who have been transformed by the power of the Spirit of God, each being a unique and specifically gifted member of the Body of Christ.  Each person in Christ’s Universal Church has been redeemed from his or her sins by God’s grace through faith in the atoning Blood of Christ, and has experienced a spiritual new birth, giving them strength to live as God desires and a hope of heaven in Christ’s eternal Kingdom. 

  

  1. Question:  If this is Biblically what Church is, then how should we, as a local Body, conform to Scripture and to the intent that God has for us as His Body?


oAnswer:  That will be up to you and I….




[1Note: the Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, is used throughout unless otherwise noted.]