Thank you all for worshiping with us this morning. It's great to have you. And there were a few people I was mentioning a moment ago that you'll, you don't look familiar to me.

And so, I figured you're visiting here, and I'd love to have a chance to meet you. But there were. More of you than I could get to before service started. So, stick around afterwards and get to know some folks while you're here. So, we're preparing, as you probably know, preparing to move Lord willing into a new church home.

And the timing of that, we're still, it's still not nailed down explicitly yet, but we're getting more information all the time. But while we're waiting on those details to become known and to work and be worked out. We're doing a series of just essentials of the church, and this is just a series of things that are culture shaping that are formative and, very basic to who we are as a church and what the church is in general.

And so, these are very foundational. And today's topic is church membership. We value membership, church membership at Christ the King for reasons that I'll explain below. I'll just go ahead and say this here and I forgot to put it in my notes, but I don't want to forget it later. We do have a membership class and there's a process that we go through to affirm and bring in new members.

And we had a class a few weeks ago. We'll have another one with, we don't have another one scheduled yet. So hopefully what, if you're not a member yet, the things I talk about this morning, if it resonates with you, you'll say, I want to be a part of that. The next time we do a new members class, that's for you.

And you'll sign up for that and we'll get you the information you need. Let me just begin with a statement and I'll, we'll let you ponder it for a second and we'll talk about it. The statement is this, there is no churchless Christianity in the Bible. There is no churchless Christianity in the Bible.

In the New Testament times, everybody would have thought, of course, duh, That's very obvious, but nowadays not so much because we have a different way of thinking about the church today It's pretty Christians in general has been it's become fairly common to just hate on the church to complain about it Criticize it To complain and you know say negative things about the church and not like it And so it's fairly common, one of the things I hear pretty often is something about church hurt.

That's a very common phrase and it's a new thing. So, it's. It's the language that we're using these days to talk about something, but frankly, I'm pretty suspicious of that phrase, church hurt. And that's not because churches don't hurt people, or people don't get hurt in churches, that certainly happens.

But the phrase, church hurt, it seems like it is a way to gain victim status, which is a form of currency in our culture. And it's a way of saying that evil thing, that horrible thing, did something bad to me as an innocent victim. And so, I've experienced church hurt because the church, this big bad institution, wounded little old me who was just being nice, faithful Christian and had nothing to do with it.

That's the way the language sounds sometimes. But that, in most cases, the hurt goes both ways, right? We're fallen human beings. We misunderstand each other. We are sinful. We sin against one another. People hurt each other. And that's just part of being a part of a social group where there's tight relationships.

That, that happens. And so, any institution, like this, there's going to be hurt that happens, and that's part of it. But today, I don't want to talk about how bad the church is, or how much people experience hurt from the church. I want to take the opposite approach, and I want to talk about how good the church is, and how much the church is a blessing, and a gift, and something we should be very thankful for.

We've talked about this before in the past, how a lot of people don't have A lot of people don't know who their close friends are or even have any. And a lot of these people, they didn't come from good families either. And so, a lot of people are pretty lonely. They don't have solid relationships with people that, where they're known and loved by other people, and they know who they are that care about them specifically.

Now, a healthy church is both a friend group and a family. In a healthy church, you can have all of these blessings, and You have deeper connections with people with people that aren't your blood relatives, but you have the sorts of connections that are common in families. Some of you in this room are Christians today because someone else in this room told you the gospel and so somebody in this room Has helped you to know Jesus and your soul is saved.

That's what somebody in this room did for you That is a huge blessing Maybe it was your mate might've been your parents but somebody in this room may have been the one that helped lead you to the Lord. Some of you have lifelong friends now because you met them here. Some of you are in a city group and the city group has been a tremendous lifeline for you through various trials and crises that you've gone through.

Some of you have gotten jobs. Because somebody else in this room or maybe downstairs gave you a job or use their connections to help you find a job. This is how a church family can alter the course of somebody's life in very positive ways. And some of you have a husband or a wife. Because you met them here.

And personally, for me, these are very gratifying. I love it. Whenever God gives me the privilege of having some role to play in somebody else's story of a man and a woman meeting one another at the church that I pastor and I'm part of, and to see them get married and then to see the children that God brings through them.

That is an incredible blessing to be able to have that. And it's humbling too. And as great as these blessings are, they're only scratching the surface of all the different things that scripture tells us are the blessings of the church. And so, what a gift it is, not only to have a church that you can attend that is fairly faithful, but actually a church that you can belong to.

And that's a deeper level. It is, that's why we'll be called membership. It is I belong to this church. This particular church group. So, let's dig in. I want us to look at 1 Corinthians 12. Now my outline comes from one verse, but we're going to be bouncing around all over the New Testament this morning.

But let's start with one verse and this is 1 Corinthians 12:27.

It's pretty short too. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. The word of the Lord. Let's look at this verse. You are the body of Christ. and individually members of it. That's my outline. First part, first point is you are the body of Christ. Second point, individually members of it.

So, let's start here. The you here is plural. So, you meaning collectively, corporately, all of us, we collectively are the body of Christ. That phrase is pretty familiar to us as Christians. You think we're the body of Christ. What is the church? Oh, the church is the body of Christ. And it is so familiar and so common that we probably fail to recognize how weird it is.

It's a weird thing to say that you are the body of another human being. So, if I were to say, you are the body of Wade Thomas, you'd be like, that's a very strange thing to say, because it is a strange thing to say, but it's so familiar when we say the body of Christ, but it. I want us to see how weird it is before we enjoy the familiarity of it.

So, the body, the word body, there's two ways that this word is used in the New Testament. There's a literal meaning and then there's a symbolic meaning. And I want to give you examples of both. So, we'll start with the literal use, the literal word body. It refers to flesh and blood, human beings. And so, the body of Christ refers to Jesus Christ incarnate Jesus Christ, because he is God in human flesh.

So, Thomas Watson, he once said in the creation, man was made in God's image. In the incarnation, God was made in man's image. Human beings are in the image of God, and Jesus Christ is a real flesh and blood human being. And that's what we celebrate at Christmas time, is the incarnation of Jesus.

We're talking about the infinite, omnipotent, omniscient creator God, who created billions and billions of stars and galaxies far away in places that no human being has even thought of. That God is intimately and instantly acquainted with all space and time. And he is acquainted with an expanse of trillions of light years, unfathomable distances.

And he is familiar with this universe that is comprised of a, of an incalculable number of atoms filled with wonders that are limited, finite human minds. We cannot even begin to grasp these things. His moral perfections are incomprehensible. He is at this moment and forever will be surrounded by angels, cherubim, seraphim worshipped.

As the all perfect creator, holy God that are singing holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory. That is who this God is. And that same God became flesh. He took on human form to become one of us, a real live living, breathing blood, pumping through his veins by his human heart, a real human being.

And it was through the death of that body, that physical body. And then the resurrection of that physical body that we are reconciled to God through faith in him. Colossians 1: 21-22 says, and you who once were alienated. And hostile in mind, doing evil deeds. He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.

So it is through the physical living, Breathing, mortal, but now immortal, body of Jesus Christ that we have eternal life. That body and that body matters. Now the other use of the body in the New Testament is symbolic. So, the symbolic use can refer to a group of people. So, a body of people can refer to a body of human beings, a church body.

You can use the word body to just refer to an assemblage of people. And it refers to the church in most instances. The literal body is God in the human flesh of Jesus, and the symbolic body of Christ is God in the human flesh of Christians. But it is a body, it is a group of people now. The point being is there is no symbolic body of Christ apart from the literal body of Christ, crucified and risen for our sake.

I'll read you a couple texts here. Ephesians 1, it says, and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Do you see that Jesus is the head. So, he is supreme over the body, but then as head, he gave all things to the church and the church, which is his body.

And that is the fullness of him who fills all things. So that is this symbolic way that the body of Christ refers to us as people. Here's another example. 1 Corinthians 11:23-24. Now this one should be familiar to you because we read this often during communion. Paul says, for I received from the Lord, what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed, took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. Now obviously the loaf of bread, Jesus's body is not made out of bread or wheat, but it is a, he is saying that the bread represents something real, a flesh and blood body and that flesh and blood body will be broken for you. And that broken body is represented in the bread whenever we come to the table.

So, there's a symbolic use. And here's it back to where we started. First Corinthians 12:27. Paul says, you are the body of Christ. So, in what sense is the word body being used here? Is this a literal body, a physical body, or is this a symbolic body? And the answer is yes, it is both. Now, you might think no, that's just metaphorical.

That's just symbolic, but it's not it's more than that. It is more than that. You might've thought that the church is the body of Christ only a symbolic way. So, it's a social group, but the New Testament doesn't allow that. If it were merely a social group, then we would be called a body of believers.

That is a way that you would refer to a group of people using the word body in a symbolic way. But the New Testament says we are the body of Christ, a body of a person, an individual. And that's weird. And it's weird because we are a body of Christ in a way that we're not a body of any other kind of social group.

And it is because the thing that joins us together is a real person that his real body was broken on our behalf. And we are reconciled to God through that physical body. And as such, the New Testament consistently calls us a body, but not in a. Not in a mere metaphorical way, but also in a way that is that you are the body of this man.

The church is not merely a group of people with common beliefs and interests. We are the body of Christ. No other religion is spoken of this way. Muslims do not refer to their collections as the body of Muhammad because Muhammad is a sinner, not a savior. So, Muhammad's dead body means nothing more than mine or your dead body.

Islam is a false religion, and Muhammad is a false prophet. There is no body of Muhammad other than the one that is dead in the ground right now. But there is a body of Christ because the body of Christ is living and the body of Christ is comprised of his people who are filled by his spirit, who are saved and who are brought together for the purpose of worship and service.

John chapter one verse 14 says the word meaning the eternal incarnate or the eternal preexisting Jesus Christ. He became flesh. And he dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. Glory is of the only Son from the father, full of grace and truth. So, John is saying, I have seen the body. I have seen the glory of God, which was housed somehow in ways that are incomprehensible.

I've seen the glory of God that was housed in that physical body. So then whenever 1 Corinthians 12:27 says, you are the body of Christ. He is saying that the church, us, we, are the continuation of Christ. of the incarnation. So, Christmas all the time is lived out in the church, the life of the church. In other words, the life of Christ, the son of God is very much alive in us through the indwelling power and presence of the spirit.

You are the body of Christ.

Every one of these words is important. You, plural, that's the church, are, it's a present reality. It's something that is happening at this moment and forever will continue to happen. Body, that refers to the physical, literal, incarnated Son of God and the continuation of that human body in the life of the church.

We are the body of Christ. Christ is the word for the Messiah. He is the Savior, the Redeemer, the one who was who was sent to purchase our souls. And it was prophesied in the Old Testament, and now he is ushered in the new covenant, and that new reality was purchased by his blood through his death and burial and resurrection of a literal body.

So that's the first point, number one. Now we have this other point. You are the body of Christ and, individually, members of it. So here we see Paul is actually telling us two things. He's giving us, he's giving us one reality and he's comparing it to another reality. So, the one reality is where the body of Christ and another reality is that individually we're members of that one body.

So, he's showing us how that one body is individuated or particularized in the lives of different people. So, there's a corporate reality, that's the body of Christ and there is a personal reality, individual members of it. And just as the word body has both literal and symbolic meanings. So also, the word member has both literal and symbolic meanings.

Let's look at those. There's a little use in the New Testament. The word member sometimes refers to a body part. So, it's a member of a physical body. Here's three examples. James 3:5 says the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. Matthew 5:29, Jesus said, if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.

For it is better that you lose one of your members, your eye, than that your whole body be thrown into hell. Romans 7:5, For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. So, our members are parts of our flesh. So, the literal use of the word member, it means a body part.

Now there's also a symbolic use. And so, in the New Testament, a member can refer to somebody who belongs to a social group. Mark chapter 15, verse 43, Joseph Arimathea, he's a respected member of the council, a social group. It was also looking for the kingdom of God to courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

So, you have member as literal, and you have member as symbolic as part of a social group. Now we've pulled these words apart and these ideas apart. Now let's put them back together and let's apply them. To our context to our church, the next text I want to show you makes these connections very clearly and explicitly.

So, if you turn with me over to Romans chapter 12, and I want to show you Romans chapter 12 verses four and five. It sounds very similar to our text in first Corinthians 12, but there's a little bit of variance that I want to highlight that can help explain this. Romans chapter 12 verses four and five says this.

For as in one body, we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function. So, we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Now I wanted to break this down to where you could see what he is saying a little bit more visually. Same verse, just move the words around a little bit.

So as in, he's talking about a physical body here. As in one body, one physical body with many members, many body parts.

Come back to me. We have many different parts, and the members do not all have the same function. So, he's starting there. So, every one of you, we all have a physical body. We've got fingers and toes, eyes, ears, hands, mouth, whatever different parts of one body, the one body needs all the different parts to function in a healthy way, but each individual member has a different function.

It performs a different role, and you need all the different roles being performed by the various parts of the body in order for the body to function in a healthy way. To be strong and healthy and that sort of thing. So, Paul says he's starting here in a physical body. Physical body, you have many members.

Members don't all have the same function, so therefore we, the church though many of us are one body in Christ and individually members one of another. Same idea, but he's saying locally the incarnation of Jesus Christ within a particular group of people. It's going to be a body. It's a singular one body is the body of Christ, but they're different members and they function differently.

They perform different services.

So, we see the body of Christ is not just a symbol. It's a living reality and it's, it has lived out in the church just as every individual human body has different parts that serve different functions. So also, for the church. And so that leads us to some practical matters in how a church operates locally, because this theology of the church, the theology of the body and individuals and that sort of thing needs to be transferred into some way of living and operating and relating to one another that reflects this eternal plan this sort of a design for the church as described here.

And so, I'm going to present this to you as three paradoxes, three paradoxes of the church. And that's how we'll go through applying it. So, here's the first paradox. First paradox is the church is both human and divine. The church is both human and divine. So, we are the body of Christ, right? So, the body, just as Jesus is human and divine, as the body of Christ, the spirit is alive within us individually and corporately as the church.

We are the body of Christ. So, we make tangible and physical these spiritual realities that are at work within us. And so, the church is a supernatural entity. That's the divine part. It's a divine body where God indwells human beings and love and fellowship. And as Jesus's physical body was a dwelling place for the divine, so also the church is a dwelling place for God.

But the church is also a human entity. That's obvious. That's us. Now, here's the thing. Christianity is an embodied religion. It is a faith that values the body. It is not immaterial as is so many Gnostic and pagan type of religions that wants to be this ethereal abstraction. That's all just spiritual stuff.

No Christianity is embodied because God created the world. He created a world of stuff. And as such, we are, this is an embodied faith. And it honors the material realm. It honors nature and physicality. Therefore, whenever the church gathers for worship, this, the physical bodies, as we come into a place and we gather in one place together, there is a spiritual reality at work here.

God gathers and he is, his presence is at work where Jesus said, where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst, there is a very real. Work of God that is present whenever God's people gather for the purpose of worship. Let me read to you. Here's a quote from David Chilton. It's from a commentary on revelation, but he says the spirit works in individuals.

Yes, but he does not work apart from the church. His corporate and individual workings may be distinguished, but they cannot be separated. The notion that we can have fellowship with God yet separate ourselves from the church and from the corporate worship of the body of Christ. Paradox is an altogether pagan idea, utterly foreign to Holy Scripture.

The second paradox, the church is both universal and local. The church is both universal and local. You might've seen the word other words to describe this, the visible church versus the invisible church or the big C church versus the little C church. In the Apostles’ Creed, it mentions one Holy Catholic church and the Catholic in that sense is not Roman Catholicism, but it is Catholic in the sense of all believers of all time.

The word Catholic can also mean universal in that sense. So, we'll start with the universal church. I want to read to you from the London Baptist confession of faith. Actually, no, I'll save it. I have a, I'll read you here, but I have a quote that I'll show you later. But the London Baptist confession of faith defines the universal church saying that it consists of the full number of the elect who have been Are or will be gathered into one body under Christ, her head.

So, the universal church is all Christians of all time. Anybody who's ever been saved and will be in eternity with Jesus, that is the universal church. So, we belong to the universal church. If you are a Christian, if you're born again, you believe in Jesus, the spirit is within you, you belong to the universal church.

So, you are part of that eternal body. So, you belong to the universal church along with Chinese Christians who are worshiping on this Lord’s Day in China. They also belong to the universal church. And you also belong to the universal church along with faithful dead saints from 200 years ago here in Cincinnati, but they've gone on to be with the Lord.

That's the universal church, but there's also the local church. The local church is a specific community of Christians in a given area at a given time who have organized themselves as a church for the purpose of public worship and mutual edification. So right now, you are in a local church. Christ the King Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, 333 Warner, soon to be another location, Lord willing.

But we're gathered in a particular place, and this localizes and embodies the universal church. It is a local expression of the eternal universal church. So, I'll read you a quote. This one's from Jonathan Lehman. He says, once you choose Christ, you must choose his people too. It's a package deal.

Choose the father and the son, and you have to choose the whole family, which you do through a local church. As I said, at the beginning, there is no churchless Christianity. It doesn't exist. And similarly, there's no such thing as an online church because that's disembodied. That's an abstraction.

Online church is about as genuine as gas station sushi. Online church is as fake as leprechauns and unicorns. It's the selfish invention of consumeristic and lazy Christians. Online church is a convenient abstraction for do nothing Christians to avoid real obligations to real people. I hate it. I hate the idea.

I don't mind somebody watching a sermon online from somebody that they, another church for that. I do that all the time. But you don't call that church. That's not a church. That is a video that you watched or a podcast that you listen to. That is not your church. A church is local people that, you can shake their hand.

You can go to their house. You can have a meal with them. You can give them a hug. You can cry with them. You love and serve and care for them. It's real people. That is a church, and you cannot abstract that. I know some churches with huge budgets and sophisticated technology, I'm like, Oh no.

Community is very real. It's just as real as any real community or any flesh and blood community. I'm like, no, it's not. You're lying. You can't go into a chat room. There, there are things that you can approximate to give you a sense an illusion of closeness, but it's not real if it's not in person.

There's no such thing as online church. Online church turns the church of Jesus Christ. It turns the body of Jesus Christ, and it dismembers it. It turns it into an abstraction where it's all about you on your terms when you want it and how you want it with no obligations to anybody else. It's fake. And if you disagree with me, then ask, answer me this.

Can you have an online marriage? No, and even if you said you could you're not going to have kids that way. I guarantee you marriage requires, and we'll get to this in a moment. Marriage is analogous to a church, but it is real, is a real relationship with the real person and you have to give and take. You have to you have to honor them and consider them and accommodate yourself to them. That's how God made it to work.

So, the basic logic of online church is Gnostic. A body cannot be dismembered without killing the body. Now let's flip that around 180 degrees and hit it from the opposite angle. Every member of a local church must also belong to the universal church. Everybody who belongs to a local church must also belong to the universal church.

Because if they don't, what does that mean? You have a church member who's not a Christian, but they probably think they are. And that is a recipe for big problems. So just because a local group of people get together and call themselves a church, that doesn't make it a real church. You can drive up to any number of buildings in town and that building will say church on the sign.

You can park your car and go in. There will be people inside that will be friendly and smile at you and they will call themselves Christians. And that organization might be a registered nonprofit 501c3 organization that says church in the name there. But if they don't believe or do what the Bible says they must believe or do, then they're not a true church

And the spirit of God is not there. Every local church needs to be constituted of real Christians. And by real Christians, I don't mean Christians in name only. I'm being real, spirit filled, blood bought, Bible believing Christians. And if they're not, it doesn't matter what the sign says. It's not a church.

It is a synagogue of Satan. And that's why modern seeker churches, they do so much harm because they've gotten the church absolutely backwards. They've redefined the church to where it is a gathering of seekers, which means by definition, it's a gathering of people who aren't Christians and everything they do is catered to their interests, to edification, edifying them, to their interest, to, to pulling them in and entertaining them.

Everything is oriented towards what they want. And in so doing, you neglect the souls of the saints who are starving in the seats. And that violates what Jesus commanded churches to be and do. So, they no longer gather for the saints to worship, they gather for the goats to be entertained. And look at any typical secret church and just do it this afternoon.

Look up five or ten secret churches and see what their sermon series are. If it's a secret church, it's probably not going to be the book of Romans. It's not going to be let's go through the gospel of Matthew together. No, it's going to be Jesus at the movies. It's going to be some kind of gimmick or stupid trick to make the church seem relevant to the world.

But it is. I hate this, not because I'm just an old grumpy grouch. I hate this because I see sheep that are pulled in by this. And then even if they leave that church and come here, their expectation of what church is has been formed in an environment that tells them church is about entertaining me and catering to me because I'm the customer and the customer is always right.

And so, whenever they run into anything at this church that they don't like but is true. They feel as though the church has wronged them, and then they leave with church hurt. You see how that works?

The goofy stuff that other churches in our area do affects us locally. Whenever you talk about something that you know is part of what it means to be a Christian, what part of what it means to be a faithful church member, you may talk to somebody who goes to Crossroads, Vineyard, big mega church down the road.

And they think what they do as church is just as valid as any other church, even though clearly in scripture, it is easily demonstrated that it is not. And so, it's got your way, I got my way, differences agree to disagree and how do you break that stalemate?

It's hard. It, what it overall just, it's like a wet blanket on the vitality and life of the spirit within a body of Christ regionally, within a given area, and it diminishes the power of our witness in a given area.

The principle that I'm driving at here is simply called regenerate church membership. And that's one of the main reasons why I'm a Baptist. Those two words, regenerate church membership, regenerate and membership regenerate is the commitment. As best we can determine, every member is actually born again.

That's the commitment. We want everybody who is a is considered a member of our church, as best we can determine that person is truly born again. They know Jesus, the life of God, the spirit is within them. And then membership is the commitment to making that explicit for everybody else. So, we've, we started this a few years ago, and I think we've seen a good bit of, a good bit of growth and movement in this area.

But we, a few years ago we said, we want membership to be meaningful. And so, it's there are like membership is more meaningful now. Like members vote on things and there's a voice. There is a procedure by which members can be heard. And it matters that somebody is a member whenever they're speaking into something.

It's there's a particular weight that their voice is given because we know things about them as a member. That we can assume a lot about that person. And so, membership is meaningful, and we want it to be meaningful and it makes it explicit for one another. So, we've, different times we'll update our member director, and we'll print them out at a family meeting.

So, everybody knows the names on this printout that we've given you. These are the people that have made membership commitments to this church and their particular duties to these folks that are Higher than just any other person that you may know. All right now I want to show you a quote I read you a quote from London Baptist confession earlier now.

I want to show you one on the screen This is a longer one. There's two different, sections. I'll show you so this is about the church, and it says the members of these churches are saints by calling, that's regeneration, visibly displaying and demonstrating in and by their profession and life, their obedience to the call of Christ.

They willingly agree to live together according to Christ's instructions, giving themselves to the Lord and to one another by the will of God. With the stated purpose of following the ordinances of the gospel. Here's the next quote to every church gathered in this way, just described conforming to Christ's mind and declared in his word, he has given all power and authority that is in any way necessary to conduct the form of worship and discipline that he has instituted for them to observe.

He has also given them commands and rules. To use and carry out that power rightly and properly. So, church membership says every person who is a member of this church is regenerate. We know they're Christian as best we can tell. And if it ever, it seems like that person is not a Christian, there's a procedure for that.

And we call that discipline, which is the church saying we thought they were a Christian, but now we have to at least withhold that assurance. And this person is. Is removed from our fellowship because we don't no longer have the same confidence and maybe we, they're an outright apostate, but there are ways to try to maintain the local body being a true representation of the universal church.

And whenever you have that, then it's okay, everybody whose name is on a member role, their particular duties that we can say, whenever the church tells us how to behave towards the church, we can make it very specific. I know who these people are that I have these obligations to. And in that kind of church, the authority of Christ is present, and the power of God is at work and the body is healthy and strong.

Third paradox, the church is both one and many. The church is both one and many. So, we read this before in Romans chapter 12, it makes explicit there's one body and many parts. That's where we are. And it's worth noting that just about every time you see the word church in the New Testament, He's referring to a local church, not the universal church.

Almost every instance in the New Testament of the word church is referring to a particular group of people and not the universal church. So, what does that mean for us? What does it mean for Christ? The King church for those of us in this room and in the great room downstairs and this church family, what does it mean?

What means first we are one body in Christ. So, what that means is a local church. We're autonomous so that we're not incomplete. We don't, there's nothing that we lack in order to be a true church. There's no, we don't need an ecclesiastical membership in order to say, yes, you're from this higher organization.

We're not going to say that you're a valid church. No, we are free to, to gather together and to be a church merely from our own body. We are a complete body now as a complete body, autonomous body, we may choose to join or leave a denomination or organization or fellowship. And we can choose to leave those things if we want to, if it serves our needs.

But we lack nothing that we need to operate as a complete body and can fully function as such. And for that reason, we're ultimately accountable to Christ who is the head of this local body. He is the head over every local church body. So, we're one body, but also, we are members where we're we are many.

So individually members of one another. So, what does that mean? It means a church is made up of many different people. So, whenever you see the word church in the Bible during your devotional time, and it says do this or that to the church, or do this or that to one another, the names and faces that ought to scroll through your mind should be people here.

Because those are the ones that are, who are most specifically the application points for those teachings.

And this is where all the symbolism and theology of the body and the church and all these things we've been talking about can be brought to bear in very practical ways. So, let's say just whenever you think about Christ the King Church, like your church home, assuming this is your church home, whenever you think about belonging to this church what kind of things come to mind when you think about this church?

I would hope that you think Jesus is the head here. This church is under the authority of Jesus Christ, as evidenced by the way that we submit to his word. So hopefully that comes to mind. But I hope that you also think of all the various people in the room, and you don't think of a particular figure, referring to myself here in particular, and so that we're not a sermon factory.

It's so hopefully the teaching here is edifying, and it builds you up. But thank you. Coming here and consuming sermons is not, that does not make us a church. And I hope that's not what people think of when they think of our church. I hope they think of individual people that are here and think that's church.

When I think of church, I think of Eddie Ceausu. I don't even know if I'm saying your name right, but Eddie, however, I've never gotten it right. I think of Eddie, I think of Michael Dendler, Jake Sauer, I think of Chris Cunningham. I think of Rachel Williams. I think of Bill and Maureen. I think of Kara.

These, there are specific names. That come to your mind when you think Christ the King Church, what is Christ the King Church? Jesus is over it all. And then there's these people, there's the many that comprise this church body. And that is what church is. I

mean, notice how striking the language of Romans 12, five is you're not just members of a church because you are members one of another. And that's, I've always found that really striking. It'd be one thing to say you're members of a church. Yes, that makes sense. But it says you are members of one another, which means there is a real symbiotic relationship between the different parts of the body.

Let me show you this. There were, I just did a search and there's more one another commands than I could fit on a given, on my screen, but I just did a Bible search in my software here. And here's all the different, okay. for the phrase, one another. There's a couple that don't apply. There's this one here is about marriage.

Don't deprive one another. So, skip that one. And greet one another with a holy kiss. Just be careful with that one. Okay. There's some latitude in applying this, but all of these texts about one another, it's not just, whoever I happen to I'm going to; I want to live in harmony with that person.

Oh, come back. Come back to me. I want to live in harmony with this person, this Christian that I like. I'm going to aim for restoration and comfort to this other Christian that I happen to know from work. I said do that by all means, but you have a particular duty to do those things to the people in this building, this room, because that they are, you are, you belong to one another.

You are members one of another. We are one body and individually, we are members one of another. So, these one another commands aren't generic for people in general whenever you feel like doing something nice. These are duties. So just around you right now, the seats in front of you and behind you to your side.

These are the commands in the New Testament that you have to fulfill. These are duties and the people around you are the people to whom you owe them. Now, of course we break it down into city groups and different ways to shrink the church to a manageable level, but everybody should have particular people that they know that's who they're supposed to obey, or they're supposed to obey Jesus in serving in very real ways. These people are not just fellow church members, but these people are members of you, and you are members of them your members one of another.

Let me show you a text. This is Matthew 25. It doesn't use the words body or member but that the concept is applied and what Jesus teaches in a parable and this parable is about somebody who is sick or Needing care and somebody goes and serves that person, and I'll just read to the end of it here.

And the, the people responded to Jesus's parable, and they said, Jesus, when do we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the King, meaning Jesus is the, would be application here. He said to them, truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me.

And so not only whenever you, when you serve one another, you're doing something good for them, but you are rendering a service to Christ. Whenever you do something for the benefit of another person in the church. So, acts of charity and service that you render to fellow Christians are regarded as having been done to Jesus himself.

So, if you're feeding the physical body of a hundred hungry Christian, it is regarded as though you're feeding the body of Jesus himself. And the thing I'm just pressing here is this is not a mere cute metaphor. That's how we often think of it. The body is a cute metaphor. It's a way of thinking, oh, that's cool, yeah, it's a body, we're all together.

But it's no, this is Paul's favorite symbol for describing the nature of the church. And so, I mentioned earlier that he does this with marriage too. So, I want to show you how he does this with marriage. Same kind of imagery here applied to a different relationship. So, in Ephesians 5:23, Paul says, the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church.

His body and is himself its savior. So, I want you to see the ecclesiology here. Jesus is the head of the body, and the church is the body. Now, he's still talking about marriage though. Paul says, In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. No one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does the church because we are members of his body.

Do you notice the similarities? Obviously, the covenant of marriage is different from membership in the church, but he's applying the same symbolism to both. So, the love and care and service that you give to fellow church members is love and care and service that you benefit from yourself because you're building up in a real way, your own body.

You're taking care of in a real way your own body when you take care of a member, it's if you're, if you cut your finger and you bandage up the wound on your finger, it's not my left hand took care of my right hand. It's no, I took care of the wound.

And so, whenever there is a wound in the body you move to it, you hear it, you bind up those wounds you find ways to care for the body. Because. There's a connection between you and other people that belong to this church. They belong to you, and you belong to them. And there is a real connection between you.

And then if that person over there is wounded and they're being neglected in some way, they're being disregarded or being treated poorly in some way. That is, you that's being treated poorly and disregarded. And so, we should have this sort of concern for one another that we're looking out for one another because in a very real way, it is like we're looking after ourselves because we belong to each other because we are one body.

If you mistreat or harm a fellow church member, you might as well be mistreating or harming yourself. And so, Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 12, God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there be no, no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together because it's one body, but it's many members. And so, we can apply this idea in the way that we interact with each other. So ultimately, as we've seen any harm that you cause fellow church members is harm, you're causing to yourself and harm that you're inflicting on Christ and any good or love or service that you do to fellow church members is that good is good that you do to Christ and it's good that you do to yourself.

So, I'll conclude with this. My exhortation is really pretty simple and that it's for all of us to see the church. And value it for what it truly is. And that is the body of Christ. And individually, we're members of it. We belong to one another. So, the church is a supernatural entity to spiritual body.

And the church is a human entity. It is a local body where we incarnate Jesus to one another and not merely because we're members of the same organization, but because we are members of the same body. And that relationship is interdependent.

Whatever love we give to the church is not only regarded by God as having been done to Jesus himself, which alone is plenty of motivation. But it is a benefit and love and service you give to that other person and that you receive benefit from that yourself. And the more you love and serve the church and seek her best interest in these ways, the more it ricochets.

And we all benefit from it. And I imagine if everybody It was loving and serving and building up the church in this way. They're all thinking, I want to build up other people knowing that the way that I build up others is going to ricochet and I'm going to be built up as well, in some other manner.

But that is how the church builds itself up. And if we all see the church in that way, we'll be a very healthy and strong church. That's my prayer for us. Let's pray. Thank you, Father.

Lord, I feel like we just scratched the surface of a powerful mystery. Amen. But I thank you for communicating it to us in your word in ways that hopefully we can understand and apply. And Lord, I pray that the net effect of this study today will be a greater love for the church, not merely as this abstracted entity, but a greater love for the church, greater service and care for the church and commitment to the church as real people.

And that in so doing, Lord, we will. Be building one another up and that benefits us too. Thank you, God, for the way that you built the church, that your design for the church is as such that you create interdependence and Lord, I pray that you will help us to live this out. Lord, I pray for any ways that we will and have probably wounded each other, neglected one another, and if failed to obey these principles, Lord, give us grace and help us to see our errors so that we can correct it and we can really come to show love and appreciation and value for the church the way you would have us do it.

And in this way that the world will know we're Christians by our love, not just love in general or happy feelings, but the way that a particular church body loves one another. And I pray that will be a powerful testimony. To everyone who comes in contact with us both now and in many years to come for your glory Protect us from harm lord and build us up in the ways that we've described this morning, And I ask this all in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit.

Amen