Sermon Central
-
We Are The Body Of Christ The Church Series
Contributed by Mark Aarssen on Feb 17, 2016 (message contributor)
Summary: The church is supposed to encourage one another until Jesus returns by getting together regularly. But instead of spurring one another one toward love and good deeds many people who have been involved with a church have only felt the spurs and not the love
We are the Body of Christ - The Church
What is the church and why does it matter?
Is the church a human institution or a spiritual body made by God?
What is the church supposed to be doing here on planet earth?
If the church is important why don’t more people belong to it?
Will the church always be around?
What is the church and why does it matter?
The church is a group of imperfect people striving to serve God out of love because they realize the enormity of what God has done for their eternal souls. God allowed His only begotten Son to die in our place so that our sins could be forgiven.
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
The church is called “the Body of Christ”
12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Just as the body has many parts so to the church has many parts and each one relying on the other to move and act in harmony.
Is the church a human institution or a spiritual body made by God?
The church is a peculiar thing?
1 Peter 2:9 KJV
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
The Greek word used here for peculiar means a purchased thing that is saved. The peculiar thing is that God would save us from our sins by purchasing us with His own blood and that He has saved a place for us in Heaven. We are so peculiar it is as if we don’t belong in this world. In fact we are so peculiar that the world hates us. Jesus told us it would be like this;
18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
What is the church supposed to be doing here on planet earth?
The church has a purpose and a commission to fulfill.
Jesus said…Matthew 28:18-20
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
The church is saved by God’s grace so that we through faith might do the work of God, the things He has planned for from the beginning.
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do
If the church is important why don’t more people belong to it?
Jesus warned that in the last days before His return that
12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
The church is supposed to encourage one another until Jesus returns by getting together regularly. But instead of spurring one another one toward love and good deeds many people who have been involved with a church have only felt the spurs and not the love. For this reason and others they stop going.
24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
We are also warned by St. Paul that a great falling away or apostasy will take place just before the Anti-Christ is revealed. The devil is working hard to keep people from being saved and from being a part of a church.
