Life in the Body of Christ I. Questions A. How do we embody Jesus as a collective and not singularly? B. Why should we value the embodiment of the assembly? C. How should the church best embody Jesus? II. Introduction A. The Lord Jesus Christ is fully God, fully human, and remains fully God and fully human in His resurrection body (John 1:1, 14, Philippians 3:21, Colossians 2:8-9, 1 Timothy 2:5) B. Yet the New Testament consistently speaks of the church as the body of Christ 1. For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you a measure of faith. For just as in one body we have many members, and not all the members serve the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually we are members who belong to one another. And we have different gifts according to the grace given to us. If the gift is prophecy, that individual must use it in proportion to his faith. If it is service, he must serve; if it is teaching, he must teach; if it is exhortation, he must exhort; if it is contributing, he must do so with sincerity; if it is leadership, he must do so with diligence; if it is showing mercy, he must do so with cheerfulness (Romans 12:3-8) 2. Is not the cup of blessing that we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread that we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all share the one bread (1 Corinthians 10:16-17) 3. For just as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body - though many - are one body, so too is Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Whether Jews or Greeks or slaves or free, we were all made to drink of the one Spirit. For in fact the body is not a single member, but many. If the foot says, "Since I am not a hand, I am not part of the body," it does not lose its membership in the body because of that. And if the ear says, "Since I am not an eye, I am not part of the body," it does not lose its membership in the body because of that. If the whole body were an eye, what part would do the hearing? If the whole were an ear, what part would exercise the sense of smell? But as a matter of fact, God has placed each of the members in the body just as he decided. If they were all the same member, where would the body be? So now there are many members, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I do not need you," nor in turn can the head say to the foot, "I do not need you." On the contrary, those members that seem to be weaker are essential, and those members we consider less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our unpresentable members are clothed with dignity, but our presentable members do not need this. Instead, God has blended together the body, giving greater honor to the lesser member, so that there may be no division in the body, but the members may have mutual concern for one another. If one member suffers, everyone suffers with it. If a member is honored, all rejoice with it. Now you are Christ's body, and each of you is a member of it. And God has placed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, gifts of healing, helps, gifts of leadership, different kinds of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:12-28) 4. And God put all things under Christ's feet, and gave him to the church as head over all things. Now the church is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all (Ephesians 1:22-23) 5. Namely, that through the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:6) 6. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you too were called to the one hope of your calling (Ephesians 4:4) 7. And he himself gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, that is, to build up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God - a mature person, attaining to the measure of Christ's full stature. So we are no longer to be children, tossed back and forth by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching by the trickery of people who craftily carry out their deceitful schemes. But practicing the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ, who is the head. From him the whole body grows, fitted and held together through every supporting ligament. As each one does its part, the body builds itself up in love (Ephesians 4:11-16) 8. For no one has ever hated his own body, but he feeds it and takes care of it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This mystery is great - but I am actually speaking with reference to Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:29-32) 9. He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things (Colossians 1:18) 10. Let no one who delights in false humility and the worship of angels pass judgment on you. That person goes on at great lengths about what he has supposedly seen, but he is puffed up with empty notions by his fleshly mind. He has not held fast to the head from whom the whole body, supported and knit together through its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God (Colossians 2:18-19) 11. Let the peace of Christ be in control in your heart (for you were in fact called as one body to this peace), and be thankful (Colossians 3:15) C. Yes, the church as Christ's body is a metaphor, but we should not presume it to be a "mere" metaphor, simply an abstraction; Paul very much intended for us to embody Jesus in very real ways D. But how? What does it look like for the church to embody Jesus? III. The Insufficiency of the Self; Collectively Embodying Jesus A. We can speak of the importance of embodying Jesus toward all people inasmuch as Christians are to individually become more conformed to the image of Jesus and follow in His ways, and thus be the light of the world (Matthew 5:13-16, Romans 8:29, 1 John 2:6) B. Yet as we do so we must remember one incredibly important and fundamental truth: none of us as individuals fully embody Jesus; the church embodies Jesus C. Individually, we are not the body of Christ; we are collectively His body 1. Very powerfully established in Romans 12:3-8: we are not to think too highly of ourselves, but see ourselves as members of the body of Christ and members of one another 2. The whole metaphor speaks to interdependent and independent function, just as each part of our body has its individual functioning that is done interdependently 3. Such means that I by myself cannot be Jesus, nor can you, or anyone else; we are Jesus together! 4. All such passages imagine the church universal, in which all of us who are in Christ throughout all time are one body; yet we functionally practice such things among our fellow Christians in the context of the local church D. Such is counterintuitive and contrary to the ethos and spirit of our age and society which exalts the individual and the potential of the individual 1. In Western society today it is all about me: what I can do, what I can get out of it, what it matters to me, how it can lead to my realization or fulfillment 2. For understandable reasons the Gospel has been easily tailored to this individualist ethos: Jesus died for your sin; you need to get saved to rescue your soul from hell; you participate with the people of God to get encouragement, etc. 3. Yet in so doing we have neglected and/or suppressed a major emphasis of the Gospel message: yes, God would have us as individuals come to faith, but all in order to jointly participate as God's people in God to share in God forever (John 17:20-23, Ephesians 4:11-16, 5:29-32) 4. Thus the Gospel cannot be about "me" E. That we collectively embody Jesus ought to be seen as liberating 1. God has established His eternal purpose in the church for it to display His manifold wisdom: different people from different walks of life jointly participating in a shared faith to His glory and honor (Ephesians 3:1-6, 4:11-16) 2. When Paul said he became all things to all men in 1 Corinthians 9:22, he meant that he met people where they were and proclaimed Christ on that basis; he did not imagine that he could literally do anything at any time for anyone 3. It is easy for many people to feel as if they are letting Jesus down if they do not do everything; yet Jesus has never expected any one of us to do everything or be everything; it is not within us to do so! 4. Instead, Jesus would have us be us as we pursue our sanctification in Christ: we are not called upon to become other people in order to glorify Jesus 5. Paul said he was crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20), yet he remained distinctly Paul, using the experiences, wisdom, and insight he had gained, along with his education and personality, to proclaim Christ; the Evangelists, Peter, James, and others did the same; we can hear their distinctive voices in what they wrote 6. Matthew 25:14-31 and 1 Corinthians 12:12-28 demonstrate such things to us: God has put different people in different places to accomplish His purposes; some have more gifts than others, but the important thing is for all to use whatever God has given them to glorify Him and to benefit one another 7. Each one of us comes with our specific set of experiences, skills, and weaknesses; we are to use those to serve one another to God's glory (1 Corinthians 12:12-28, 1 Peter 4:10-11) 8. Thus we do not have to be as one person or another person; we can recognize that God has valued us and what we bring to the Kingdom! F. At the same time, we are not the head 1. Over and over again Paul made it clear that the head of the body of Christ is Jesus (Ephesians 1:33, Colossians 1:18) 2. It is a good and healthy reminder that Jesus is Lord and Christ, and we are not; we are His servants, and our functions in His body are completely dependent on His direction and empowerment 3. Yes, there is delegated authority Jesus gave to elders (1 Peter 5:1-4); there is the authority that comes from the Word proclaimed (Hebrews 4:12); yet even every exercise of power ought to be done in Jesus' name according to Jesus' purposes by the methods which glorify Jesus! G. But what does this look like? How does the church embody Jesus? IV. Embodying the Assembly A. When we speak of "the church" we do well to remember its primary meaning: ekklesia as assembly 1. Reminder: in English, "church" first means a building for Christian worship, and secondly a Christian organization; these are appropriate definitions in English because they convey the use of the term in English 2. And yet at no point in the New Testament does Greek ekklesia mean "a building" or "a Christian organization"; it always refers to people who come together as an assembly B. Thus "the church" is to be known for its coming together and assembling as reflected in the New Testament (Hebrews 10:25) C. In very real ways we are to embody Jesus in our assemblies 1. The assembly as the gathering of God's people to jointly participate in acts of faith is the most concrete embodiment of Jesus' body before the day of resurrection 2. In Ephesians 4:11-16 we see quite vividly how the point of the church is to "build up the body," that is, to strengthen and reinforce the various members of the body in their life and devotion to the Lord Jesus and to one another 3. Thus, it should not surprise us how in 1 Corinthians 14:28 Paul declared how everything done in the assembly should be done to build up, or edify! D. Such is the most powerful argument for the continued importance of physically coming together despite a disconnected, virtual age: to concretely embody Jesus in a profound way E. We thus embody Jesus in the acts of the assembly 1. In our thanksgiving in prayer we become as one, being led in prayer by one, affirming the prayer together with "amen": the embodied collective prayer (cf. 1 Corinthians 14:14-19) 2. In our singing our voices manifest perichoretic unity: we each sing with our voices, and the sound of our voices interpenetrate without losing their distinctive identity, and in this way we speak to one another what God has done in Christ, and viscerally collectivize the message (Ephesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16) 3. In the proclamation of the Word we share in the message of what God has done for us in Jesus and what it means (2 Timothy 4:1-4, etc.): it should be no mere lecture or performance, but a collective engagement with what God has made known in Christ and in the Word and how we are to manifest it in our lives 4. No embodiment of the church is as concrete as the Lord's Supper a. 1 Corinthians 10:16-17: we are one body because we partake of the one bread; our sharing of the bread and the fruit of the vine bears witness to our joint participation in the body of Jesus b. 1 Corinthians 11:16-34: Paul's critique of the Corinthians was their manifestation of class distinctions in the observance of the Lord's Supper; for Paul it meant they were no longer observing the Lord's Supper since the manner of their observance bore witness to earthly division and not the singular body of Jesus; contrary to popular opinion, the "examination" is not about one's worthiness but is about one's "recognition" of the body, that one is partaking to remember the Lord who died and is risen and does so on equal terms with and as part of the church as the body of Christ! 5. Our giving can be understood as its own form of koinonia, joint participation or community: we are sharing in the work of the church together (cf. Romans 15:26, 2 Corinthians 9:13) F. We can understand, therefore, how the assembly itself and everything done in the assembly, as done unto the building up of Christ's body, manifest our embodiment of Jesus as the church V. Embodying Jesus as the Church A. We can understand why much emphasis is placed on the assembly of the saints: after all, what kind of ekklesia is there that does not assemble? B. Unfortunately it becomes all too easy to over-emphasize the assembly: it is an important part of our joint participation in the faith and our embodiment of Jesus, but it is never the sole or even reckoned as the most important manifestation of our joint participation and embodiment of Jesus C. What makes "assembly" an incomplete translation of ekklesia is the final definition of the latter: a group of people with a shared identity, even when not physically assembled D. Thus we are "the church" when we are assembled together, and we remain "the church" even when not entirely assembled together, or entirely separated! E. And what are we to do for one another in the church? We are to build one another up (Ephesians 4:11-16)! F. This cannot be done entirely in the context of the assembly; the assembly is only part of how we are to stimulate one another to love and good works (Hebrews 10:24-25) G. But what would it look like to embody the church outside of the assembly? H. We could do much worse than Hebrews 13:1-16 as a template 1. Brotherly love must continue (Hebrews 13:1) a. John 13:31-35: we will be known as Jesus' disciples for our love for one another b. 1 John 3:16-17, 4:7-21: loving one another demands providing for the material needs of one another when in distress, casting out fear, manifesting real relational unity c. Love demands the investment of time and material goods! 2. Do not neglect hospitality (Hebrews 13:2) a. 1 Peter 4:9: we have been commanded to show hospitality to one another without begrudging it b. The ultimate welcome is to bring people into your home and feed them c. Humans have always communed over food d. Without the demonstration of hospitality and the sharing of meals and space it demands, we are not truly sharing in life together 3. Remember those in prison as though you were in prison with them, and those ill-treated as though you too felt their torment (Hebrews 13:3) a. Christians imprisoned in the first century would be in dire circumstances: they would only eat or be sustained by what was brought to them b. Anyone coming to visit a Christian in prison would accrue shame and suspicion themselves; it was quite costly c. Thus Christians were to understand themselves as being in prison with them, willing to bear that shame and suspicion, to provide for one another d. Would we prove as willing to uphold one another at such a cost? 4. Avoid sexual immorality and greed (Hebrews 13:4-6): part of the reason we must avoid the works of the flesh is how they damage relationships and can devastate a church; have you not heard of situations in which there were sexually immoral relationships among Christians in a local congregation, or a church has suffered from embezzlement by one of its members, etc? 5. Remember leaders and imitate them; obey leaders (Hebrews 13:7, 17): a reminder of the power of emulating the embodied examples of the faith; in a time and place skeptical and suspicious of authority, we do well to maintain trust in leaders to follow them, and leaders should act in trustworthy ways that embody Jesus 6. Avoid strange teachings (Hebrews 13:9): a confession that there are all sorts of weird ideas out there, and we must avoid them; part of the reason why it is important to be saturated in God's Word 7. Suffer marginalization for Jesus (Hebrews 13:12-14): Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us and suffered rejection and hostility; how much more will we suffer the same if we seek to embody Jesus in the world? If we do not thus suffer, are we truly embodying Jesus? 8. Praise God in confession (Hebrews 13:15): the Hebrews author spoke of continually speaking of God in Christ, but it would also apply to continual prayer and song (1 Thessalonians 5:16, James 5:13); we ought to continually sing and pray and speak of the Lord 9. Do good and share what we have (Hebrews 13:16): as in Galatians 6:10, especially for the household of faith, but also for all people; we are to go about doing good and sharing the blessings with which God has blessed us I. As we do these things we grow more like Jesus as we embody Jesus; we grow closer in relationship with one another, thus growing connections and resilience within the body; God is glorified in Jesus, and His body is built up! J. The work we do to embody Jesus as/within His church is far greater than the work we do in the assembly; our failure of imagination and overemphasis on the assembly have caused us great distress and difficulty VI. Conclusion A. Jesus remains fully God and fully human in His resurrection body, ruling from and interceding in heaven B. Yet the people of God embody Jesus on earth, concretely manifest in their assembling and gatherings, and continually reinforced and strengthened by their joint participation in the faith and their striving to fully embody Jesus C. Each ought to strive to embody Jesus while confessing that we can only collectively embody Jesus D. In this way we build up the body of Christ, participating in its growth as we grow stronger in relational unity with God in Christ and with one another E. Such is God's ultimate purpose, for we shall spend eternity in resurrection bodies together with God sharing in relational unity and harmony! F. May we all dedicate ourselves to that beautiful relational unity among God and His people and obtain the resurrection of life in Christ! G. Invitation Scripture, Meditation, and Application 1: He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things (Colossians 1:18). The Lord Jesus Christ remains fully God and fully human in His resurrection body; He reigns in heaven where He continues to intercede for us. And yet Paul continually referred to the church as the body of Christ. Paul uses church as body as a metaphor to describe how the church ought to function, yet it is no "mere" metaphor. Paul very much intended for Christians to understand themselves as a collective jointly participating to glorify God in Christ. How can the church be understood as the body of Christ? 2: So we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually we are members who belong to one another (Romans 12:5). It is easy for individual Christians to think too highly of themselves, especially in a highly individualistic age. Even though everything in the world centers on "me" and what helps fulfill and realize "me," it is not so among the people of God. As individuals we are to follow Christ, but we cannot fully embody Him. We only fully embody Jesus as a collective. We are many but one body in Christ; we are members who belong to one another. We are thus freed to be ourselves in Jesus: we bring our experiences, skills, and weaknesses, and should use them to God's glory, while we draw encouragement from the experiences, skills, and weaknesses of others. How are we to understand our salvation in terms of God's purpose for His people as a collective? 3: Not abandoning our own meetings, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and even more so because you see the day drawing near (Hebrews 10:25). The "church," in New Testament parlance, is people: the people of God. Greek ekklesia is primarily about a group of people who gather together. The church most concretely embodies Jesus in its continual gatherings. The acts of the assembly ought to be done to build one another up and each in its own way manifests an embodiment of the people of God. We should not neglect such gatherings. How do we embody Jesus in our assemblies? 4: Brotherly love must continue (Hebrews 13:1). While the church is known for its assembling, the work of Christians in the body of Christ is by no means limited to the assembly. Christians are called upon to actively and continually work to build up the body of Christ even when not assembled as a local congregation. They are to show love, display hospitality, consider those imprisoned, avoid immorality and strange doctrines, emulate good leaders, obey their leaders, suffer like Jesus, continually praise Him, and do good and share what they have received. In these ways all Christians can build up the body of Christ, embodying the relational unity we all should have with God and with one another in God, the kind of relational unity we will share in eternity in the resurrection. How do we embody Jesus in the church beyond the assembly?