The Body: Christ’s Working Through the Church, Part 1

Ephesians 1: 15-23
Topics

In today’s broadcast, we’re diving deep into the often curious relationship between Jesus and the church. So, if you’ve ever found yourself pondering, “I want to make a big impact for God, but the church seems like a mess. Do I really need to be part of it?” then you’re in precisely the right place!

Pastor Colin will be unpacking some pretty potent Scripture from Ephesians Chapter 1, and addressing the idea that, despite its imperfections, the church is fundamentally intertwined with the work of God on earth. After all, Jesus didn’t just randomly decide to associate with the church; He actively chose it as His vessel.

Many of us have viewed the church as a petrol station, a quick pit stop to refuel our spiritual tanks, or as a movie theatre, seeking entertainment and a place to escape our worries. But Open the Bible is here to shift that perspective. It’s time to discard those consumer-oriented images and recognize that the church isn’t a service provider; it’s a living, breathing community where Jesus’s plans unfold.

You say, I don’t want to get tied up with the church, but what do you make of this? Jesus chose to tie himself up with the church. Say, why would our glorious head join himself to such a feeble body? Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. And Colin, there may be someone listening today who is thinking, I want to do something big for God, but the church is such a mess. Why would I need to be part of that? Yeah, well, for the simple reason that God has committed himself to work through the church. That’s the uniqueness of the body of Christ. It is the body of Christ. That’s what we’re looking at in the scripture. So anyone who belongs to Christ wants to identify with the body of Christ. I mean, one day you will want to be part of the body of Christ when it’s redeemed in heaven. And guess what? Jesus Christ calls you to be part of his body in all of its need and in all of its inadequacy in this world right now, because Jesus Christ has made the church central to his purpose and his work in the world. You want to be involved in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in the world. You want to be involved in and committed to a local church. So today we’re going to look at Ephesians and chapter one. As we begin the message entitled The Body. Here’s Colin. Last week we began by asking the question, what is the church? And we looked to Jesus for the answer. We saw that our Lord used the word church on just two occasions and that his use of this word church is really defining for us today. In Matthew chapter 16, the Lord Jesus used the word church to refer to all believers in every time and place. And then in Matthew chapter 18, our Lord used the word church to refer to a local congregation of believers, just as we are today. A local congregation really is church. And we saw this wonderful truth that we are not simply part of the church. The New Testament never says that. We are church. And in Christ, we are invisibly one with all that is church, all that is body of Christ, all that is bride of Christ and family of God. Now, when you see this, and when it begins to sink in what it means to be the church, you will view the local church in an entirely different way. And my prayer for this month, as you know, is that for many of us, there will be a rethinking of the place and the priority of the local church and that we will come as a result to share in the passion of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, the Bible’s teaching about the church is not easy to grasp. We read, for example, in Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 9, that the church is a mystery. In other words, it is really only with the help of the Holy Spirit that as Christian believers we can begin to understand it at all. But God wants us to know who we are. And for that reason, he teaches us this great truth that can sometimes be difficult to grasp by way of pictures, by way of images, by way of analogies. Now, we are going to look at three of these pictures or analogies in this series, the church as the body of Christ, the church as the building of God, and as the bride of Christ. But before we get into the first of these today, I want to take just a moment to point out to you some of the false pictures that many Christians today have of the church. Let’s get rid of what’s a distortion so that our minds can be ready to receive the images that Christ gives to us. Tom Nelson, who serves as a pastor in the Free Church, is a good friend, has identified four distorted images of the church. I find them rather helpful because they’re so memorable. First he says, there are many Christians who view the church of Jesus Christ as a gas station. In other words, it’s a place where you fill up. Here’s my spiritual tank and it’s running a bit low and I’m getting near to empty. Let’s get a good sermon. Where can we go for that? And so forth and so on. That’ll pep me up and keep me going and fuel me for the week. The church is a gas station. Maybe you’ve thought of the church a little bit like that. Second, the church is a movie theater, the place where we get entertainment. Here’s an hour of escape. Here’s a place where you can leave the troubles of your life at the door and come out after an hour or so smiling and feeling better than when you went in. A lot of Christians think of the church like a movie theater. Third, the church is a drugstore, a place where you fill a prescription that’s going to deal with your pain. Where can I get something that’s going to deal with my pain? A lot of Christians view the church simply at that therapeutic level. Fourth, the church is a big box retailer. I like this one. Many people have this idea. You know, the church is the place, like the big box retailer, that offers the best products in a clean and safe environment for you and for your family. You know, what people are looking for in a church is often the same way as they think about the big box retailer, where great service, low price, and all in one stop. And for many people, the church is a kind of producer of programs. What do you have for my kids? What do you have for young people? And so forth and so on. Now, there’s something in all of these images. There’s reasons why people think in all of these ways. But seriously, as a community of people who want our minds, our hearts, and our lives to be shaped by the Bible, I want you to take in with me today that you won’t find any of these pictures in the Word of God. All of them are distortions. And if you think about it, they have one thing in common. They’re all about me. Did you notice that? Fill me up. Entertain me. Take away my pain. Give me the programs I’m looking for for me and my family. It’s about me. It’s about what I get. It’s pure consumerism, which is not surprising. That is pervasive in our culture. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t have any particular loyalty to a gas station or a movie theater or a drugstore or a big box retailer. I move around when it comes to these things, just trying to get the best deal at any given time. And there are a lot of Christians like that, too. They’re drifting around from one thing to another, seeing what they can pick up here and there. They find it hard to settle because they have never really understood what the church is. And they miss so much as a result. So let’s recognize that there are some very distorted and very destructive images of the church that are at work in many minds and hearts, especially in our culture today. And I want us in this series to move away from a self-centered, consumerist way of thinking about the church and to grasp from the New Testament what Christ says to us about what it is that he’s calling us to be, what it means to be the church. So I hope you’ll open your Bible then at Ephesians and chapter 1, where we begin today with the church as the body of Christ. Let’s start at verse 18. Paul is praying that God will open our eyes, the eyes of believers, to see, verse 19, his incomparably great power for us who believe. It’s a wonderful phrase. Let’s pause there for a moment. God has power. God has great power. More than that, God has incomparably great power. There is nothing to compare the power of God with, the apostle says. You know, Satan has power, temptation that you experience has power, the government has power, the media has power, but there is no power that you could ever begin to compare with the power of God. It is an incomparably great power that is his. Let’s have an altogether different order and notice what he says, that this incomparably great power of God is for us, for us who believe. Now since God’s power is incomparably great, it follows, of course, that you cannot then liken it to anything except itself. And so Paul says, let me give you an example of what this incomparably great power looks like. It’s like the working of the Father’s mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead. So you see what he’s saying, as we put this together, he says the power that the Father exercised on the day when the stone was rolled away and the dead corpse of Jesus was raised to life, the Son of God raised up on that day, this is his incomparably great power and it’s for us who believe. Then he says something else. Not only did God in his incomparably great power raise Jesus from the dead, but, verse 20, the Father went on to seat him at the right hand of the Father in heavenly realms far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every title that can ever be given, not only in the present age, but also in the age to come. Now he’s building up to something here, that’s why I’m taking a few moments on it. Then he says, having spoken about the incomparably great power of God by which he raises Jesus from the dead and then causes him to be seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven far above all rule and all other power, then he says, verse 22, do you see it there, God placed all things under his feet and appointed him, Jesus Christ the Son, to be head over everything. Pause. Why? That’s the question. This incomparably great power of the Father exerted, demonstrated in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and in his ascension to the right hand of the Father, everything is placed under his feet. Why did the Father raise Jesus from the dead? Why is Jesus exalted at the right hand of the Father? Why has everything been placed under the feet of Christ? Look at the astonishing answer in verse 22. God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for, what does it say? The church. Would you ever have thought that that would be there? For the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. You’re listening to Pastor Colin Smith on Open the Bible. We’ve been looking at four distorted images of the church, and in a minute, we’ll come back and look at one healthy image. And if you ever miss one of our broadcasts, you can always catch up online. Come to our website, openthebible.org.uk. You can listen to any of our previously broadcast messages there. You can also find a lot of other information about the ministry, so you’ll be very welcome there. Back to the message now, here’s Colin. The Bible uses this wonderful picture of the church as the body of Christ in two distinct ways, and it’s important not to confuse them. Most of you will be familiar with the image of the body in 1 Corinthians in chapter 12, where the whole body, including the head, is working together in coordination. And you have the hand and the foot and the eye and the ear. They all play a distinct role. And the main point of that picture, of course, is that we need each other and that we all have a part to play. The emphasis of that picture, that image of the body that is used in 1 Corinthians in chapter 12, is primarily to teach us what is sometimes referred to as the priesthood of all believers. It’s a great and a wonderful truth. But I want you to notice that in Ephesians in chapter 1, so you don’t become confused, this is actually a slightly different picture. It is distinct because here Christ is the head and we are the body. And what we are being taught here in the scriptures is therefore distinct and is also very wonderful. By the way, every analogy of the church points to Jesus Christ. Ed Clowney puts it this way. He says, if the church is the bride, then Christ is the bridegroom. When the church is the flock, Christ is the shepherd. When the church is the temple, Christ is the builder, or he is the foundation, or he is the cornerstone. And when the church is the body, Christ is the head. There’s no such thing in the New Testament as a Christless church. It all points to him. Our life is in him and comes from him. Now think about this picture here then in Ephesians in chapter 1. Christ is the head and we are the body. The whole body, think about this, is directed from the head and by the head through the central nervous system. The head acts, the head works, through the body. And the body itself derives life from the head. Without the head, the body is lifeless. So here I have a pen and what happens in the simple act of you picking up a pen or any other ordinary act any day, when you think of the complexity of this, the decision is made in the head, I will pick up this pen. The head makes this purpose and then what happens? The arm responds in being raised. The fingers gather together. The thumb presses against them in order to form a grip. The arm lifts and the pen is raised. The head is operating through the body. Now you take that simple picture that’s our own experience in a million ways every day. By describing himself as the head and describing us as the body, Jesus is telling us that he has chosen to operate, to do his work through the church. How else does a head operate except through a body? Now of course you don’t need me to tell you that Jesus is well able to act without the church and sometimes he does. For example, when Saul of Tarsus was converted on the road to Damascus, there wasn’t a Christian nor was there a local church anywhere in sight. But you know that is not how Christ normally acts. The analogy of the head working through the body tells us that Christ has united himself to his people and that he has chosen and chooses to do his work through local congregations that are the body of Christ, the fullness, Paul says, of him who fills everything in every way. Now just think about that and let’s immediately apply it to ourselves. Since Christ is committed to work through the church, why wouldn’t we do the same? Since Christ is building the church, isn’t that what you should be doing? Since Christ loves the church, shouldn’t we be loving her too? Since Christ works through the church, would you not want to be doing what he is doing? Now some of us here might be thinking, especially if we’re used to church hopping and wandering around, you might be thinking at this point, now wait a minute, this sounds a little bit limiting. I’d rather do my own thing for Jesus. You would, would you? You’d rather do your own thing for Jesus. Well, maybe you would. But my question then is, is that what Jesus wants you to do? You say, I don’t want to get tied up with the church, but what do you make of this? Jesus chose to tie himself up with the church. You say, why would our glorious head join himself to such a feeble body? Isn’t that amazing to you that he would do that? And the answer is that in this way he chooses to display his glory. You know that the glory of Christ is displayed in the New Testament in this world in two ways. The first is the salvation of believers. Number two is the gathering of local congregations. The first is in Ephesians chapter two and verse seven, where Christ shows the incomparable riches of his grace in the salvation of individual sinners. The second is in Ephesians chapter three and verse 10, where Christ displays the glorious spectrum of his wisdom in gathering congregations of believers. And folks, that is what we are. That is how central this is to the purpose of Christ. Now, Christ displays his glory through the gathering of believers. Why would you not want to be part of that? To belong to the body of Christ, to serve the body of Christ, to give to the body of Christ, to live and to die for the body of Christ. There is no greater privilege for a believer in this world. And when you grasp that we are the body of Christ, that was the whole point of the message last week, you will begin to see this in a whole new light. See, the gas station, the movie theater, the drugstore, the big box retailer, they are all means to an end. But the church is not a means to an end. The church is an end to itself, because God places supreme value on the gathering of local congregations of believers. In fact, as we saw last week, this has been his great purpose throughout history. What did we learn from the Heidelberg Catechism? That out of the entire human race from the beginning of the world until its end, what is God doing? He gathers, he protects, and he preserves for himself a community of people chosen for eternal life and united in one faith. And the Father, therefore, has exalted Christ the Son over all things. Why? For the church. For the church. My friends, thinking this through, that is why the primary strategy for evangelism in the New Testament is to plant churches. We should think about that. The primary strategy in the New Testament for evangelism is to plant churches. The book of Acts, just read it. What does Paul do? He goes into one city after another, and he preaches the gospel, and he gathers a few converts, and he establishes a church, and then he goes back to the same places a short time later, and he establishes elders in all of these churches. Why? Because God’s great purpose is more than that people should be converted. It is to gather his church. Because the bringing together of this new community, that one day will be glorified in heaven, as we thought last week about the great multitude gathered in the presence of Jesus, this is his plan of salvation. It’s not a kind of detachable extra. Because the head works through the body, and the great apostolic vision was that in every great center of population there should be a body through whom the head will work. You’ve been listening to Pastor Colin Smith on Open the Bible, and a message called The Body, looking at these biblical pictures of the church. So I hope you’ll join us again for our next message. If you ever miss one of our messages, you can always catch up online. Come to our website, openthebible.org.uk. And now you can find our messages also as podcasts on your favorite podcast site. Just search for Open the Bible UK, and subscribe to receive regular updates. Open the Bible is supported by our listeners. That’s people just like you. And this month, if you’re able to begin supporting us with a new donation in the amount of five pounds per month or more, we’d love to send you a free gift. It’s an Advent devotional, and it’s called The Coming of the King by J.C. Royal. Colin, what makes this book so special? Oh, two things. The first would be its theme. It’s all about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Or rather, I should say the comings of the Lord Jesus Christ, because it is both about his first coming that we celebrate at Christmas and about his second coming that we anticipate with hope and with joy. So a book that just focuses us on the coming of Jesus is going to be a blessing. And the second reason that it is a marvelous book is its author, Bishop J.C. Royal. He was a bishop in the Church of England in the 19th century. He is one of my favourite authors, all-time favourite authors, and especially in regards to the Gospels. He has some marvellous books on the four Gospels. And this little book, the 25 Readings for Advent, The Coming of the King, is selected from Ryle’s writings on the Gospels. They’re simple, they’re clear, they’re beautiful, they shine the light on the Lord Jesus Christ, they’re faith-building, they’re refreshing, and you will enjoy reading this little book during Advent. Well, we’d like to send you this book as our way of saying thank you for your financial support this month in setting up a new monthly donation for £5 per month or more. Full details on our website, that’s openthebible.org.uk. For Open the Bible and Pastor Colin Smith, I’m David Pick, and I very much hope you’ll join us again soon. The Apostle Paul did more than lead people to Christ. That’s only half a strategy. He also planted churches. Find out why next time on Open the Bible.

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Colin Smith

Trustee / Founder and Teaching Pastor

Colin Smith is the Senior Pastor of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He has authored a number of books, including Heaven, How I Got Here and Heaven, So Near – So Far. Colin is the Founder and Teaching Pastor for Open the Bible. Follow him on X formerly Twitter.

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