What is the Church?

Okay, very good. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. I'm going to invite you, brethren, to please open up your Bibles to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter one.

Today, by God's grace, we are going to be studying something here in the book of Ephesians. So Ephesians chapter one, if you have your Bibles there today, we're going to be addressing verses 22 and 23 of Ephesians chapter one. And as you remember, last week we finished with our series of studies on biblical salvation. We gave six statements on the characteristics of biblical salvation, and today, by God's grace, we're going to initiate or we're going to start another study, and that is not on biblical salvation, but rather on what is a biblical church. We're going to be addressing in the same way that we did last week, in the last couple of months, statements pertaining biblical salvation.

What I want us to do in the following weeks is to address the statements addressing or pertaining to what a biblical church is. And of course, there is a very important question that we need to answer before we get into what is a biblical church, or better, the characteristics of a biblical church, and that is the definition of the church. So I want to call your attention to verse 22 and 23 of the first chapter of the Book of Ephesians, there the apostle is going to say, or he's going to tell us what the church is. If you pay attention there to verse 22, he says, and he put all things under his feet, that is Christ, and gave him as head over all things to the church. Verse 23, which is his body, the fullness of him who feels all in all.

The apostle tells us there that the church is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what I want us to consider in the following weeks. These are characteristics of a biblical church. And the first question, as I said, that we're going to be answering this afternoon is what is the church? At first glance, that might seem to be a simple question.

And you may say, perhaps the church is just a gathering of the saints when they come together. But when you look through history, you realize that that question has caused a lot of division and a lot of separation among those who profess to be Christians, the definition of the church. So we're going to be reading together from verse 15 all the way through verse 23 that is going to give us a little bit of the context And then we're going to be addressing verses 22 and 23. Now, is the audio a little bit too high, perhaps? It's all good?

Are we all good? OK. So we're going to be reading chapter one from verse 15 to 23. But as we always do, we're going to come before the Lord and ask that he will help us, that he will guide us, that the Spirit of God will give us the freedom that is necessary to speak and for you to receive the words of the Lord and that we will understand the meaning of the church. So let us come together, brethren, and let us pray.

Father, as we come before you in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, we give you thanks for your goodness, your patience towards us, Lord, that while we are sinners, while we have broken your commandments, you have sent your Son to die upon the cross for our sins, and you have not only forgiven us, but you have given us freedom, you have redeemed us, and you have made us your children. You have given us the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of your Son, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. As we're coming before you, O Lord, I ask that you will grant us of your Holy Spirit, that your presence will be among us, O Lord, that you will grant us the freedom that is needed for us to speak the words of Christ, that you will grant us, Lord, the light that is needed for us to understand such an important matter of what it is the church, your bride, I pray, O Lord, that You will point us to the truth of Your heart. I pray, O Lord, that You will point us to the truth of the Scriptures and that the outcome of this exercise here, the outcome of the proclamation of Your Word will be not that we only fill our minds with information, but that we learn by the Holy Spirit to behold the greatness of the work of Christ upon the cross pain for the sins of a bride that was chosen before the foundation of the world, a bride that is being set apart by the Holy Spirit, a bride that is going to find her Savior when the fullness of time comes. I pray, O Lord, that you will teach us that, that as we behold all of these truths and as we read of all of these truths, that we will not only see ourselves as people or as individuals who are seated in chairs and doing religious things on a Sunday or a couple of times per week, but rather that you will teach us to see ourselves as members of the body of Jesus Christ and that the prize for that to be a reality was the blood and the life of your Son.

Teach us, Lord, to be thankful. Teach us, Lord, to be always, always desiring to know more of you and to love you and to love your bride, as you have called us to do. Please teach us through your word, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Efficience chapter one.

We're going to be reading once again there from verse 15 all the way through verse 23, addressing those two last verses. This is the word of the Lord. Efficience chapter one. For this reason, And because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his powers towards us who believe according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, for above far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

And he put all things under his feet, that is God the Father, he put all all things under his feet and gave him, that is Jesus, as head over all things to the church, which, that is the church, is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Amen. This is the word of the Lord. As I said, I want us to address that statement that the apostle is going to give us there. Perhaps this is one of the verses in the New Testament that most clearly tells us what is the church.

Here we are clearly given to us in verse 23 that the church is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the head and that the church is the body. But let me just simply ask you this question. What do you think that is the church? Once again, that is the question that we're going to try to answer this afternoon.

If someone was going to come and approach you and ask you, they know that you have been attending church, that you are a Christian for many years, and they come to you and they ask you, please tell me what is the church? And perhaps this person does not have any background in Christianity, perhaps they don't have any understanding of Christian things, and perhaps they don't even believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And they may tell you, you know, every time that I hear about a Christian church, I see so many different churches with so many different ways of doing things. A church that is very traditional and very structured, and then you can have churches in which you feel that you're in a concert. You can have churches that are doing things in a particular way, and other churches that are doing things in another way.

Some churches are preaching a particular message, and other churches seem to preach something that is different or even opposite to what I hear in other churches. What is the church? And as you go through our church history, you realize that this is certainly not an easy question to answer. Many people, as they have tried to answer this question of what is the church, they have come to answers that are so different to each other that they have decided to take different paths. Every time that we see them from the very early on in the New Testament, we see that people will take different paths according to their understanding of who Christ is and what the church is.

Certainly, the question of, what is the church is a very important question. And that is because when we come to the scriptures, we realize that whatever we believe about the church, the church is the people of God. And the people of God has been entrusted with a message of salvation. That means that our answer to what is the church is directly connected to our view of salvation. If we do not have a clear understanding of what is the true Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, we might be in the context of a group of people that even though they call themselves to be Christians, they may be preaching a message that even though they call it Christian or they call it the gospel, may be different to the message of Jesus Christ.

And even though a group of people come together to a place and they put a sign that says, we are a church, does that necessarily mean that is the Church of Jesus Christ that is stated in the scriptures? This is a very important question, not only for life eternal, but also for spiritual growth. We are told in Ephesians chapter four that the place in where we grow is in the context of the brothers and sisters to the fullness and the measure of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is in the context of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ that Christians grow spiritually speaking. So if we do not have the right answer to the question, what is the church?

We might very well find ourselves in a nice and very good community, but not necessarily the place where we are supposed to grow in conformity to Jesus Christ spiritually speaking. And not only that, but it's in the context of the church that we are called to fulfill the calling that we have. As Christians, we are not only forgiven, and we're not only made the children of God, but we are also called to live our lives for the service of brothers and sisters. And that is meant to happen in the context of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Once again, communities of people, they can come together, they can do things together, and they can put a name to their building that says, a Christian church.

But the church, as we have heard many times, is not necessarily the building that we see, but it's something that goes beyond that. And hence, it is important for us that we understand the biblical meaning of what it is, the Church. And here, in verse 22 and 23, as I said before, we have perhaps one of the clearest statements about what the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is. And the Apostle does not make it easier for us because he is going to give us an illustration, a metaphor. He's going to tell us that the Church is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the head and that the body is the church.

This is an illustration, a metaphor that we've heard many times. So what I want us to do from this text is just simply a couple of things. First, I want us to understand What is the meaning of that illustration that Paul gives us here in verse 23? What is the meaning of that illustration that Jesus Christ is the head and that the church is the body? This is an illustration.

This is a statement that we usually make, and we say we are the body and He's the head. He's the head of the church. We are the body of the church. We are the members of the body. And this is something that we usually say with our mouths, but do we really understand what the point of the Apostle Paul is when he uses this metaphor of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ?

So first, what I want us to do is to understand the meaning of this illustration that the body of the Lord Jesus Christ is the church. Second, once we have understood that, by God's grace, I hope, I want us to make some observations and statements that are going to help us understand the meaning of that illustration, or the meaning of what it is that the Church is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. In order for us to understand these observations that I'm going to be making from the text, we need to understand the purpose of this illustration that the Apostle uses when he says that Jesus Christ is the head of the church and the church is the body. We're going to understand the illustration first and then we're going to understand some observations. Let's start with the first thing.

Let us see this metaphor or this illustration that the Apostle gives us. He says that Jesus Christ is the head and that we are the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know if you know this, but this is a statement that belongs to Paul only. He's the only one in the New Testament in the Scriptures that speaks about this illustration or metaphor that Jesus Christ is the head and that we are the body. Actually, the book of Ephesians and the book of Colossians are the places in which most of the time this illustration is used.

And this is actually going to be very important. Paul, different to other apostles, is going to use primarily this illustration. Peter, for instance, if you remember in 1 Peter chapter 2, I think in verse 4 and 5, he's going to use the illustration that the church is the living stones. that they come together to Christ Jesus, who is the cornerstone that has been rejected as the living stones were being built up as a spiritual house. Or John, perhaps, in John 15, quoting the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, you may remember that we are the branches, that he's the vine, that we have been inserted, and that we abide in him.

But when it comes to saying that Jesus Christ is the head and that the church is the body, Paul is the only one who is going to use that illustration. primarily in the book of Ephesians and in the book of Colossians. Let me just simply show you a couple of instances where the Apostle is going to use this very well-known illustration in Christian language. It says in chapter 4, if you go to chapter 4 in verse 15, chapter 4 verse 15, it says, rather speaking in the truth in love Ephesians chapter 4 verse 15 it says rather speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ here we have actually the third instance in which Paul uses this analogy of Jesus Christ being the head and us being the body. If you jump very quickly there to the book of Colossians that is going to be after the book of Philippians, I'm simply showing you the evidence of Paul being the only one that uses this illustration.

If you go to Colossians chapter 1 in verse 18, We have a parallel passage, if you know, Colossians and Ephesians are sister letters, so we cannot understand Ephesians without Colossians, we cannot understand Colossians without Ephesians. It says in Ephesians 1, verse 18, and he, speaking of Christ, is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he may have preeminence or be preeminent. That is the fifth instance in which Paul uses this statement. Actually, he applies this statement to his personal ministry.

If you jump there to verse 24 of Colossians chapter 1, he says there in verse 24, Now I rejoice, in verse 24 of chapter 1, now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. We could go to chapter 2 and chapter 3, and it will continue, and it will continue to be this way. Paul is the only one who uses the analogy or the illustration or the metaphor of Jesus Christ being the head and the church being the body. Now, the question is, why? Why does Paul chooses this analogy or this illustration of us being the head or us being the body and Jesus Christ being the head?

The answer to this in a simple word is going to be unity. For Paul, one of the most important aspects of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be unity. Actually, when Paul is writing Ephesians, for him the argument is this. From eternity past, we have been chosen in him before the foundation of the world. We have been separated because of sin.

And in the fullness of time, when all the consummation of all things will come, there will be unity between that which is heavenly and that which is earthly. And the main way in which Paul is going to tell us of this unity, of this oneness, it is going to be in the coming together to Jesus Christ. If you come with me to Ephesians chapter 4, this oneness or this unity for Paul is going to be really important. Pay attention please in 4. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 4.

Now I'm trying to build a case here because understanding what I'm going to say here is important for us to understand the nature of the church. It says in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 4. Unity is one of the most important elements of the theology of the Apostle Paul. So when we think about the body, what the Apostle is thinking is all the members coming together as one. But that which is more important for Paul is not only all peoples, But rather, the main thought that Paul has in his mind is the unity between the Jews and the Gentiles.

The oneness that Paul refers to in the book of Ephesians is primarily being given to the oneness between the Jews and the Gentiles. Now, I know that this for us, as Gentiles, people who are not Jews, who live 2,000 years after the Lord Jesus Christ, might seem not to be so relevant, but it is very important. This oneness that Paul has in mind in Ephesians is the oneness primarily of the Jews and the Gentiles. Pay attention here if you come to chapter 2, verse 14. Here, you will see that implicitly, Paul is speaking about one body, and this body made up of two, and these are the Jews and the Gentiles.

Pay attention to chapter 2, verse 14. For he himself, that is Jesus, is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing the law of commandments, expressing ordinances, that he may create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace. Now, I know that this may be a little bit too teachy, brethren, I'm really sorry about that, but it's really important that you see the main point of the Apostle. Because we are not to understand what we want to understand about the Scriptures, we are to submit to what the Scriptures teaches us in the context of the Scriptures. And the main point of the Apostle when he's speaking about one, one body, oneness.

It is the unity that exists between the Jews and the Gentiles. In the mind of the Apostle Paul, the dividing wall that was separating the Jews and the Gentiles, namely the law and the ordinances and the sin under which both of them were, Now he's being broken by the Lord Jesus Christ so that Jews and Gentiles can come together as one in one body. So he continues in verse 16, he says, and he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. In other words, Jesus Christ came and when he came and he died upon the cross, he's the one that brings peace to the Jews that were close and to the Gentiles that were far away. So he has made one man of these two, the Jews and the Gentiles.

This is really important because this is going to tell us a very important element of what it is this one body. This one body has a spiritual nature and not a physical nature. This is going to be the main point of the Apostle in Ephesians chapter 1. So if we understand that this illustration of Jesus Christ being the head and the church being the body primarily is telling me a spiritual unity, I'm going to be able to understand the nature of the church. Because he has made both from Jews and Gentiles one that is going to be the people of Jesus Christ.

What is the purpose of this analogy of one body? It is equal to unity. Unity with Jesus Christ and unity between those who are the members of the body. This is the main thing that I wanted just to say, and just to have it there from the book of Ephesians, we could explore this further. We're going to do so on Wednesdays on our Bible study through the book of Ephesians.

But having said that, now let me just simply make observations, three, perhaps four, depending on the time, that are going to help us understand now the question that we formulated in the beginning. What is the church? So if we return now to our text in verse 22 and 23, we clearly see here that the Apostle tells us that the church is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord Jesus Christ is the head. Now here the Apostle is giving us actually four Four implicit statements or four implicit ideas that he's going to work through the book of Ephesians and some of them in the book of Colossians. Four things that are going to help us understand the relationship of the church as the body to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I'm going to try to state them one by one so that you can see them because I know that this is going to be a little bit too much this afternoon. So I'm going to try to make it as clear as possible from the beginning so that we can get something out of it. Now the puzzle has given us an illustration, and the purpose of the illustration is for us to picture that illustration, right? The head and the body, and we will understand certain things out of that illustration. The first thing that we need to note from this illustration is that Jesus Christ as the head of the church, the church being the body, means that they are united.

Just as the head cannot be separated from my body, otherwise I will be dead, so Jesus Christ cannot be separated from the body. They are united. So the first thing that we ought to note is that the Church is meant to be united to Jesus Christ. Just as Christ is the head, the Church is meant to be united to Christ. That is number one.

Second, you will see the position of my head over the body. My head is above my body. That is that the body of the Lord Jesus Christ is meant to be under the head. In other words, submitted to the head. Something that the apostle will explore in chapter 5.

So first, the relationship of the church to the head is that they're united. Second, is that the body is meant to be under the head. In other words, the head is the one that has authority over the body. We are going to see that here, and also we're going to see it in chapter 5. Third, and very important, the body is also going to complement, not with the I, but with the E, is going to complement the head.

You see that statement that we have there in verse 23. It says, which is his body. the fullness of him who feels all in all. There is a sense, and we're going to explore that, I hope with time, that the church complements Christ. Not that Christ is missing something or that Christ is lacking something, but the unity between the head and the body.

Christ Jesus and his church is such that the body of the Lord, the church complements or completes the Lord Jesus Christ. Once again, I'm not saying that Jesus Christ is lacking something or that Jesus Christ is not God. I'm not saying that. I'm just simply saying that in the theology of the scriptures, we see that the role of the church is to complete or to complement something. And then fourthly, if the time allows us, it's 20 minutes.

Let's see if we can do that. Fourthly, it is that the body is going to share in Jesus Christ. Actually, if you pay attention to the full analogy that we see there in verse 22 and 23, we are told that God has put all things under the feet of Jesus Christ, who is the head of the body. You can see that. God has put all things under the feet of Christ, and the Church is the body.

Here the picture is not only that Jesus Christ is the head and the church is the body, but that all things have been put under the feet of Jesus, namely under the feet of Jesus and the church. This is going to be that we share in the victory of Christ. So first, we see the union between the head and the body. Second, we are going to see the authority of the head over the body. Thirdly, we are going to see the body complementing or completing the head.

And fourthly, I don't think that we're going to be able to do all of this, but fourthly, we're going to see also the sharing of the victory of Jesus Christ with his church. You know how the scripture says that he will put everything under his feet? It says also they will be put under the church, and that is incredible. So let us start to do one by one. Let's try to do it.

May the Lord bless us as we advance to this. Now, the church is united to Jesus Christ. And the question, as the head is united to the body, the body is united to the head, it is united one to the other. The question that follows from this is, what is the nature of that unity between Jesus Christ as the head and the church? And someone may say, well, the nature of this is just a practical nature, is that we are here with Him, that He's with us.

Every time that we come together, we are united to Jesus Christ. I'm going to submit to you that the way that we are united to Jesus Christ is spiritually speaking. And I think that all of you would agree with that. But let us return, please, to Ephesians chapter 4. In Ephesians chapter 4, we are told about the spiritual nature of this unity that exists between Christ as the head and the church as the body.

It says in Ephesians chapter 4, pay attention to What is the nature of the unity? This is verse 3, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Now, I could go back into Ephesians 2 and show you that this is the same language that he's using to speak about the unity of the Jews and the Gentiles. He has made peace from two and united them. The unity that Paul preaches is a spiritual unity.

That is that the body is meant to be united to the head, spiritually speaking, and that the members are meant to be united spiritually speaking. In Ephesians chapter 5, he's going to explore this and he's going to tell us that this unity is equal to salvation. If you come to Ephesians chapter 5, there we have once again the analogy or the illustration of Jesus Christ as the head of the body, then we're going to say that this unity is a spiritual unity, brethren, that is meant to be in salvation. Pay attention there to verse 22. Wives, set me to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife.

even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its savior. Now in Greek there's no pronouns for him and her, so that its could be very well her savior. But it says, and is himself its savior. So we have here that Jesus Christ is the head of the church that is the body. He gave himself up for her, and he is the savior of the church.

So put simply, this means that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ are those who are spiritually united to Jesus Christ who have been saved. those for whom Jesus Christ is their savior. The church is not primarily a community of people that come together on a particular day. Are we a community? Yes, we are a community of people that come together on a Sunday and we sit in a chair, but the essence of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ are those who have been saved?

Are those who have been spiritually united to the Lord Jesus Christ? Are those who by the gospel, by the power of the cross, have been made one with the Lord Jesus Christ? Is the church in a way an organization in which we have certain things? There may be external elements of that, but the church is not fundamentally an organization or an institution. The church is a spiritual entity.

And it's very important for us as Christians to understand how important it is that we understand the spiritual aspect is priority over the external. Because that is exactly what was happening with the Jews and the Gentiles. The Jews, they were apprehending all of their practices and all of their laws and all of these things that God had given them to make them the people of God. And by apprehending all these laws and all of these things, they were meant to be separated from the Gentiles. So the law and everything that God gave to the Jews to the Jews was for that purpose, to set them apart, to separate them from the Gentiles.

Why? Because the Gentiles were not the people of God and they were given over to sin. But as the Jews were beholding and apprehending all of these commandments, these commandments did not have the power to bring unity between the Jews and the Gentiles. So when Jesus Christ comes, he fulfills all the requirements of the law, he fulfills all the requirements of the Father, and then he breaks those commandments. He breaks the wall of hostility better that those commandments were creating, and he brings into spiritual unity those who by grace through faith are united to Jesus Christ.

That's why we can have Christians from the Jews, and we can have Christians from the Gentiles. Because the unity of the body is no longer by the keeping of the ordinances as in the Old Testament, but the unity of the body is found only by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And even though we do not live in times in which we have the ordinances, and we don't have the powers, and we don't have the structures of the externalities of what it was the system of old, let me submit to you, brothers and sisters, that we as humans are easily tempted to give priority to that which is external over that which is spiritual. Easily we can give priority to that which is carnal, to that which is fleshly, to that which is external, and to define the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ based on those external, carnal, temporal matters instead of the spiritual matters that are supposed to unite us. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is that which brings together the people of the Lord and not those external matters.

That's why we live in times in which church is that you just simply target a group of people. You define their demographics, what they like, what they prefer, how they move. And once you understand how they move, how they operate, then you just simply develop a system of church that matches their demographics, their cognitive appreciation of things. And then you deliver that as a product. And then churches become a marketing exercise and a fight with each other.

Because these are not about external matters, brethren, but it's about spiritual matters. So this teaches us something very important. And that is that the business of the church is not a carnal one, but the business of the church is a spiritual one. So hence, that which I'm going to target, or that which I'm going to proclaim, is not that which is carnal and which is external, but I'm going to focus on that which is spiritual according to the word of the Lord. Because if I focus on that which is carnal, the carnal will call the carnal.

And if I focus on that which is spiritual, the Lord Jesus Christ will build up his church. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is in nature spiritual. So that's why the call for a local church and every church is that we will give priority to the spiritual message of salvation that brings salvation to those who receive it. That's why Paul says to these Corinthians, I have determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And this also means, my dear brother and sister, that the concern of the church, of a genuine church, should not be the external only, but it should be the spiritual matters.

And when the spiritual matters are the concern of our lives, then that means that we're concerned about the condition of our soul. That means that we are concerned about sin. We're concerned about the situations that happen in our hearts. We're not just simply superficially living our lives in a superficial community, satisfying our things that we prefer and the things that we like, we can enjoy all of those things, but it's meant to be deeper than that. Dealing with the problem of sin, dealing with genuine salvation and concern to bring the message of Jesus Christ to bring salvation to people.

And also that means, my dear brother and sister, that the way that we reach this community in which we are, it is through the spiritual means that Christ Jesus has given us. That is that through the proclamation of the gospel, we reach to the poor. That through the gospel of Jesus Christ, we reach to the lost. That through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, we reach to the one that is in need. That is that through the message of Christ Jesus, we Going to the mission, the spiritual mission of the church.

Why? Because the nature of the church is one that is spiritual in nature. And that's why, for instance, here at Cornerstone, we baptize believers. Why? Why do we baptize believers?

We baptize believers because baptism is a sign of those who have been spiritually united to the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because the nature of the church is one that is spiritual. We are not only Christians because we come on a Sunday and we sit on a chair. We are Christians because by grace through faith we have been united to Jesus Christ spiritually speaking.

And this is spiritual union that we have with Christ is that now what gives meaning to the spiritual union that we have with him in the elements on the table and then when we partake of baptism and then we are united with him. Spiritually speaking gives the meaning to that which is external. Why? Because the nature of the church is one that is spiritual. Second, if we return to our text, it is not only that the head and the body shows us that the nature of the church is one that is spiritual, but as I said before, the church is meant to be in submission to Jesus Christ.

We are told that the head is over the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you pay attention there to verse 22, the Apostle is going to make the effort to tell us that he's the head not over certain things, but he tells us that he's the head over all things, pay attention to verse 22, and he put all things under his feet and gave him, that is Jesus, as head over all things to the church. Here the apostle is telling us that the headship of Christ Jesus permeates every aspect of the church. He's going to expound on that in chapter 5, the passage that we have just read, In the analogy that he gives of the husband and the wife, if you come with me there, he's going to use now more clearly that important word that is the word submission. If you come to Ephesians 5, verse 22, there we have in verse 22, For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

This is the same language that he used in 1, 22 and 23. God has given Jesus Christ as the head over all things to the church. That is that absolutely everything that pertains the life of the church is under submission to the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as the wife is to submit to the husband, so the church submits to the Lord Jesus Christ. Why?

Because Jesus Christ is the head of the church. And this word, let me just tell you the difficult things and then I'll point you to the true meaning of this. This word is actually a military word, submit. So it has this power of authority that Jesus Christ is the one who has the authority over the body that is the Lord, that is the church. And in all things we are to follow, we are to obey the Lord Jesus Christ, a very strong military term.

But let me just submit something very important here to you, and perhaps this will teach us the biblical nature of submission. Submission is not the result of authority, but submission is the result of unity that has been initiated in love. Let me say that once again. Submission is not the result of authority, even though the word submission pertains and it is related to authority. Submission is not the result only of authority.

Submission is the result of unity that has been begotten, initiated in love. That is the main point of the Apostle here for the husbands. He says that wives are to submit to their husbands as the Church submits to the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Savior of the Church, and that Jesus Christ sacrificially gave himself up for the Church. So that which precedes submission is the loving manifestation of the sacrifice of Christ.

The reason why the Church can submit to the head that is the Lord Jesus Christ is not only because of the authority of Jesus Christ, but it's because of the loving sacrifice of the Lord. Jesus Christ. So genuine biblical submission is not the result of the authority to whom I have to submit, but biblical submission should be the result of a loving sacrifice of that person who is in authority so that I'm in alignment in my will with the one that is my head, in this case Jesus Christ. Submission is a joyful act of the heart of the church being brought into alignment with the will of God because of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. But we are told that the church is to submit in all things.

So then this means, my dear brother and sister, that the church is one that needs to learn to discern the will of God. And this points us to the centrality of the word of the Lord. Because submitting to Jesus Christ requires that I know what he wants me to submit to. Submitting to the Lord Jesus Christ requires that I understand what is the will of the one to whom I have to submit. So then that means that the context of the church that is spiritually united to Jesus Christ requires that we will understand and have knowledge of the Savior.

If you come with me to 2 Peter, in 2 Peter we have a famous verse that speaks about all things that have been given to us that pertain to life and godliness, and that is in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. I haven't already given you the verse there, but we can read it there in 2 Peter chapter 1, 2 Peter chapter 1, 2 Peter chapter 1, the apostle tells us, 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 3, His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, how? Through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence. All things that pertain to life and godliness have been given to us, how? Through the knowledge of Jesus.

The knowledge of Jesus is that which gives us all things that pertain to life and godliness. And how do we obtain, how do we receive, how do we understand the knowledge of Jesus Christ? Through that which is written. How can a biblical church submit to Christ and everything that he is? Through the scriptures, brethren.

That's why when we come to church, we're not coming just simply to please our affections. The center of church is not us. It's not our emotions. It's not our mental health. I'm going to get an emotional talk that is just going to move my emotions temporarily.

so that I feel okay by Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and then when I'm done on Thursday, then I will need to come back once again on Sunday just to receive this emotional talk that will pull me once again high, and then I will just simply go up and down, up and down in my life. The role of the Church is that we will be submitted to Christ through His Word, and the way that that happens is not only by a sermon that is preached on a Sunday, It happens by the Word of the Lord being filled into your hearts, being treasured up into your hearts. So that's why the role of the church is much more than a Sunday two hours or three hours. It is the role of discipling one another. It is the role of studying the Scriptures with one another.

It is the role of understanding the Word of the Lord together so that we are treasuring up the Word of the Lord in our hearts, that we can point to one another to the Lord Jesus Christ, And yes, we're sinners, and yes, we're broken, and yes, we have mental issues and health issues and all of these things. But as we advance and as we progress in understanding of spiritual matters, we can deal with our problems in a spiritual way. Otherwise, brethren, the Church simply becomes a collective psychological exercise in which a person with a degree of pastor is just simply proclaiming psychological matters to appeal to the emotions and the preferences of people and to move them into a certain direction. The words of men. do not have the power to heal and to say the things of the heart and of the soul, only the word of the Lord.

And that requires that there will be a submission to Jesus Christ in all things. How can we submit to Him if we don't know Him, brethren? How can we submit to Jesus if I don't open the Scriptures? How can I submit to Jesus? How can we submit to Jesus as a church if we come, and then I read a verse, and then I speak about my experiences, or I speak about your emotions and your feelings?

How can we learn about Jesus if I just simply take a story and I take the moral, psychological teaching out of it, and I apply it to you just to tell you a story with a couple of good illustrations? How can the soul of a person be restored apart from the words of Christ? The Church is a spiritual entity that is united to Christ Jesus. And because it is united to Christ Jesus as her head, now it is under his authority. And that authority is given to us primarily in the scriptures, and that's why we are to be people of the book.

Why? Because the book is that which points us to Christ. As we return to our text, let me point you to the third one. The church is not only the body of the Lord in that we are united to him spiritually and that we are under his authority, but second and very importantly, or thirdly, very importantly, we complement or complete the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a very difficult statement there, but it's found in verse 23.

It says there in verse 23, the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who feels all in all. And I don't know if for you it happens, but it happened to me when I was just studying this, that it's a difficult statement, that the church is the fullness of him, that is Christ, who feels all in all. The Apostle Paul is going to use similar language in the parallel passage if you come with me to Colossians. He even uses a more difficult language there if you come to Colossians, Colossians chapter one. Colossians chapter 1, he speaks about feeling Christ in a certain way.

Colossians chapter 1, verse 24. It says, 24, and I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, Paul says, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions. Don't tell me that that is uncomfortable to read, because it is, right? It says, And in my flesh, I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. Certainly in Ephesians chapter 1 and here in Colossians chapter 1, the Apostle is not telling us that there is something lacking in Christ Jesus that we need to come and feel because he is just literally lacking.

Jesus Christ is God, and he is the fullness. Actually, in this book, the apostle is going to tell us that the fullness of the deity dwells in Christ Jesus. The point of the apostle is very simple, and that is that the Church, the body, completes the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is a great manifestation of the humility of the Lord Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ is God. And in a sense, there was no need for him to come down to this world to die upon the cross.

But when he decided to come come from eternity past and died upon the cross to live for us, to die upon the cross and to be resurrected. When he did that, now he is also taking upon himself the body, which is his bride, the church. And in a sense, now Jesus Christ cannot be complete without his bride. And that's when in eternity future, we are going to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the body and we are the fullness of the people of God.

That is the bride. So that Christ Jesus shares with us who He is and also shares with us the blessings. That's why we are told, for instance, if you remember in Ephesians chapter 1 and Ephesians chapter 2, that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. Or we are told in chapter 2 that we have been seated up at the right hand of the Father in Christ Jesus. Why?

Because now when we become one with Him, we partake and we are sharers of the good things and also of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the primary way in which the church shares with Jesus Christ is in the commission that was given to the church. If you come with me to Matthew chapter 28, you may remember there the great commission there, the apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ is going to use very important language to tell us of the mission of the Church in sharing and partaking with Christ Jesus and his authority and his power. In Matthew chapter 28, you remember there the Great Commission. Matthew chapter 28.

It says Matthew chapter 28. And Jesus came, verse 18. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

Brethren, just simply think about that. Jesus as God, he has the power to save all people without the need of the church going and preaching and making disciples. Jesus Christ as God, he has the power to build up his church from all tribes, from all nations, from every tongue. He has the power to bring salvation into them immediately without the work or without the efforts of anyone who belongs to his church. But now the way that the mission of Christ is fulfilled, the way that the body of Jesus Christ grows up, the way that the church is actually completed is through the work of the church together with the power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ.

That's why we're told in Ephesians chapter 4 that we are to grow in the measure and the stature of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because once Jesus Christ has been united to his bride, the body, Now the body completes the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are partakers of the mission of Jesus Christ. And people, those who are going to be saved, they will be saved through the preaching of the gospel and through the mission that is granted to the church, the power of the Holy Spirit operating through His people. The way that the kingdom is built, it is through the work and the efforts of those who have been saved.

And this is a glorious thing. This is a great encouragement that the kingdom of the Lord is going to be completed and fulfilled through the work of Christ, through his spirit in his bride, and that he makes us partakers of the glorious blessing of redemption, that he makes us partakers of his glorious mission that is going to come and is going to be fulfilled when the Lord Jesus Christ comes. This teaches us then, brethren, that the Church is not only a spiritual group of people that have been saved by grace through faith, that are under the authority of Jesus Christ, namely in the scriptures, but also that we are partakers of the mission of Christ. The people of Christ should not be passive about the mission of Christ. The people of Christ should be active about the mission of Christ.

And the people of Christ, the spiritual people of Christ, who are under the authority of the Word of the Lord, they should know because of the Spirit and because of the Word that the value of our lives, whatever it is, 60, 70, 80, 100, it is to bring Christ to people in whatever degree that we can. It is true that we have to work and accumulate money for certain things. It is true. It is true that we need to have a family, perhaps. And those of you who have been called to marriage and have kids, it is true.

Is it true that we are to build houses and to have a place where to live? It is true. But at the end of the day, brethren, all of these things are going to pass away. And the only thing that will last is that which we do by grace for the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord using us for the extension and the building up of his kingdom. And finally, in the last five minutes, if you return to our text, it is not only that we complete the Lord Jesus Christ, but finally, brethren, we also partake of the victory of Christ.

As I said before, if you pay attention there to the illustration in verse 22 and 23, the whole picture of what Paul tells us there is not only that Jesus Christ is the head of the church, the body, but he also tells us that all things have been put under the feet of Jesus Christ. We're told there in verse 22, If you return in your page there to verse 10 of chapter 1, Paul uses a very similar language, speaking about the fullness of time. In chapter 1, verse 10, he says, The metaphor or the picture that the Apostle presents to us there is that Christ Jesus is the head, the Church is the body, and all things will be put in submission under the feet. And that includes, of course, the Church as the body and Jesus Christ as the head. If we were going to go, we could go, but we're not going to do it.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, from verse 22 onwards, we are told that all enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ are going to be put under his feet. feet and brothers and sisters the church is made partaker of the spiritual victory of the Lord Jesus Christ over his enemies. In first Corinthians chapter 15 we learn that the last of the enemies to be cast out is Death is the last of the enemies, and this last of the enemies, Revelation chapter 21 and 22, it is because Satan has been defeated. Let me just say this without quoting so many scriptures. I will explain it, and then I'll point you to something.

When sin came, it entered into the world. A cosmic battle started between evil and the good of God, and the first manifestation of that battle was separation between the people of God from the garden and God himself. They were removed, they were ejected from the garden, and there was separation there. God that was in communion with his people in the garden, now he's separated from them. He's no longer with the people.

They're outside of the garden, and if you remember there, the promise that God gave to the woman was that the seed of the woman was going to crush the head of the serpent. You remember that? And that we know that is the Lord Jesus Christ, that when He comes upon the cross, He comes to destroy the works of Satan. Hebrews 2, verse 14, and 1 John 3, verse 10, that Jesus Christ came to destroy the works of Satan. But as Paul is writing to the church, especially the church of Rome, he's going to tell something that is very powerful.

So come with me to Romans chapter 16. And with this, I will finish. Romans chapter 16. Romans chapter 16, verse 20. Romans chapter 16 verse 20, it says, the God of peace will soon, speaking to the Romans, the God of peace will soon crash Satan under your feet.

Speaking to the church, he says once again, and the God of peace will soon crash Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. The fact that we are the body of the head, the Lord Jesus Christ, that we are united with him, does not only speak about the spiritual nature of the Church, not carnal, not external, not through the means of man, but through the means of the Spirit. It also speaks about the submission that we ought to have to the words of the Savior, So we don't come to worship ourselves and to follow our own wisdom, but we've come to follow the wisdom of the Lord. And in being partakers of this spiritual unity with the Lord Jesus Christ, we're also partakers of the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why? Because we complete the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. God has appointed that through the work of Jesus Christ and through the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, the kingdom of Jesus Christ will be fulfilled. But in the same way that we're spiritually united, the kingdom of darkness and of Satan will be pushed back by the Holy Spirit that operates in this present evil age. through the work of the church.

It's not that we have the power to defeat Satan. It's not that we have the power to defeat demons, but rather by the spirit that is in us and with the power of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. When someone comes to freedom in Christ Jesus, there is a soul that has been rescued from the kingdom of darkness. When we bring the truth of God And when a person is delivered from sin or from slavery to a particular matter by the Scriptures and through the power of the Holy Spirit, then the kingdom of darkness has been pushed back. And the promise is that in the end of the days, the victory of Christ over the system of darkness is going to be the victory of the church.

That's why when we go into the book of Revelation, we find out The Apostle John calls us kings and priests of God because we're going to be with Him, reigning with Him. Why? Because we are made partakers of the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ. So then that means that those who are united to Christ are only those who are spiritually united to Him. How can we say that people that are externally united to Him, that do not believe in Him, that have not received the grace of the Spirit, that they belong to Christ?

We cannot say so, because the people of God are those who are spiritually united to Him. The church is the spiritual body of the Savior, the spiritual body that is going to be kept and preserved throughout the ages, the spiritual body that is going to submit to the word of the Savior, the spiritual body that is through whom the mission of the Savior is going to be completed, and the work that is going to be given to this church as the victory for the consummation of all things that the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished. This is the glories of the gospel. So when someone asks us, what is the church? We are not to look to the external things only, or to people coming together on a particular day.

That where our mind should go is into the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, is spiritually applied to people, generally saving them and uniting them into a spiritual body, because it's the spiritual body of Christ that is going to endure until the end. the one that is going to be preserved until the end. And when that body, when that people are preserved until the end, and they are brought into the presence of the Savior, the glory is going to be only for Jesus Christ. Because apart from the grace of Jesus operating in those who are genuinely saved, those who are the church of Jesus Christ will perish and will fall because of their own carnality and because of the sin of this world. But the Lord has given us the promise that the work that he has begun in his people He will bring it to completion.

That's why, brothers and sisters, and with this I finish, we are to hold in our hands the spiritual means that have been granted unto us. Do we have a physical community of people that come together? Yes, we do, and praise God that we have one another, and that we can enjoy one another, and that we can spend time with one another. But the most important thing among us It is our unity with Christ by grace through faith, because that is eventually what unites us. It is our faith in Christ Jesus, and to him is all the glory.

Amen? Amen. Let us pray. Father, as we come before you, Lord, and as we consider all of these things, I pray, O Lord, that you will teach us to learn the ways of Christ and that you will teach us, Lord, to have the words of the Lord Jesus in our hearts and in our minds. Lord, as we consider all of these things and as we see ourselves, that we will not see ourselves only just coming to church or doing certain things in the church, Lord, but that we will see ourselves as a people who have been redeemed spiritually, Lord.

That when we were dead in our sins and our trespasses, that when we were dead spiritually speaking, Lord, you gave us of your Holy Spirit not only to unite us to a group of people, but to save us and to make us your people. So I pray, O Lord, that you will grant us an understanding of these matters, Lord, that when we see our brother and sister, and then when we see their lives, that we will see beyond that, Lord, and then we will see the spiritual matters, Lord, that we will pray for one another, that we will encourage one another in the things of Christ, Lord, I pray that you will point us to the things of the Lord, and as we grow together in love for you, that we will grow in love one for the other. Please teach us, Lord, in times of trial, in times of tribulation, in times of despair, when we see and we feel ourselves even disconnected from you and from your body, Lord, to see that this whole salvation is purely by grace through faith alone, and that the way that we are inserted in you is purely by grace, so that we will not cede to our performance, our works, our deeds, thinking to the externalities of our ways to please you, to satisfy you, or to satisfy ourselves, but rather, Lord, that we will trust alone in the completed and finished work of Jesus. Teach us, Lord, to see ourselves as the body of Jesus Christ, the one that shares one spirit, one faith, one baptism, one Lord, one Father of all, and that as we grow in unity with you, that we will grow in unity one with the other. Help us, O Lord, I pray that you will do this, in Jesus' name, Amen.