Video Transcript: Church

Hi, I'm David Feddes. And this talk is about believing the truth about the church. The Christian Leaders College and Institute statement of faith says, The church is the one body of God's people throughout all generations, and from all nations. 

Jesus gives two signs and seals of God's grace, baptism and the Lord's Supper. Let's think about those statements a little bit more. When we say the Church is the Body of Christ, we're echoing something that the Bible says again, and again and again, Romans chapter 12, says, “for justice, each of us has one body with many members. And these members do not all have the same function”. So in Christ, though, many we form one body and each member belongs to all the others. 

Now you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a part of it. And 1 Corinthians 12, develops that more fully. And it says, now, sometimes a part of the body might tend to think that it's more important than another. But if the eye says to an ear, well, you're not really part of the body, you're not very important, well, then where would the sense of hearing be, and if the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of smell be, you need your eyes, your ears, your nose, your hands, your feet, every part of your body, and one part of the body can't say, oh, I don't need those other parts. 

And at the same time, if you're have kind of an inferiority complex, you shouldn't say, Oh, I wish that I could be like another part of the body, I wish that I had the abilities that somebody else has, I wish I had their personality, I wish I weren't me, because I'm worthless, I'm useless. Well, that's a big mistake, too. Being part of the body of Christ means that every part of that body matters. And even parts that aren't very noticeable, or don't seem very significant, can actually be of great importance.

And Paul says now in the body, if one part suffers, the whole body suffers. Take an example. Back in the day when Shaquille O'Neal was a great basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers, what a massive player he was seven foot one, well over 300 pounds, mountain, a muscle, most valuable player in the league, the Lakers are doing great. And then all of a sudden, they weren't, they had a string of about 30 games where they did very poorly because Shaq couldn't play because his toe hurt too much his toe, and he couldn't play because of problems in his toe.

And because he couldn't play his team wasn't very good for that span of time either. If you think you're just a toe in the body, and not a very important part, it can hurt the whole body, if you're not functioning, the way that you're designed to function. And so it is with the body of Christ, the less important members are very important still, because they only think they're less important.

And so the Bible teaches that the entire Church is the Body of Christ. God placed all things under Jesus's feet and appointed him to the head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who, who sells everything in every way. If we're the body of Christ, never forget who the head is. Jesus is the head of the body. And therefore, the church universal does not need a different head. 

Over time. Sometimes the Church says, oh, this person is the vicar of Christ, the bishop of Rome is the ruler of the whole church. No, we believe in the body of Christ with Christ as its ugly head. It also means that if you're entrusted by God to be the pastor of a local congregation, you're not the head of that church. Christ is the head of that church. It's not really your church. Sometimes we talk kind of loosely about my church, this or my church that, but let's remember whose church it is. It's God's church with Jesus Christ as the head. 

But at the same time, the church, the church, universal is an amazing and wonderful thing. The Bible says that God chose to display his manifold wisdom to the principalities and powers of the angels, through the church. That church is the way God displays his wisdom to the angels in ways they otherwise wouldn't have seen both in the wonders of the head of the church, but also in the way the God brings the many different parts of the body together and helps them to work together and to do wonderful things. And so we should always Remember that the Church is the Body of Christ. 

Now that's not the only image of the church. In the New Testament, the church speaks of the, the, the Bible speaks of the church being the Bride of Christ, showing how much Christ treasures, His Church loves it, how much he gave up in love, to make that Church's own, and to make her a radiant bride. And it has many other pictures of the church as well. 

So the church is very, very precious to God, the church is an amazing and wonderful thing. And even when we see the flaws of the visible church, that's Let's never forget the glory of the invisible church. In the visible church, there are people mixed in who aren't truly converted. And that can sometimes result in ugly things in the church. 

The church also includes people who are truly converted and born again, but they're a long way from being who they're finally going to be when they're glorified in Christ. And so the church on this side of glory is going to have its flaws, but never let's never forget, it is the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, precious to Christ. And we who seek to be leaders in it ought to treasure it, and humbly serve under Christ our head.

 It's a church, not just from one little group here or there. It's a church from all nations There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, so you're all one. In Christ Jesus, if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. 

No matter what country or nationality you come from, no matter what your skin color or cultural heritage. No matter who you are, in terms of a culture, you want to know something, you're Abraham's seed, because you belong to Jesus Christ, who is the seed of Abraham, we all belong to father Abraham, we're all one in Christ Jesus. And this is one of the beautiful things about the gospel it, it brings people together who otherwise might not have had much in common. Jesus said, Go and make disciples of all nations, he didn't just want a nation here or a nation there to follow him. He wanted all nations to know him. And he wanted his glory to be reflected by all the different kinds of peoples that are out there, and the vision of heaven, the vision of the new creation is of a great multitude. 

That no one could count from every nation, tribe, people in language, standing before the throne, and before the land, there's no room for racism. In the church, there's only room for all the nations and all the races that God has redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and made his own. And in the church, God gives the preaching the fellowship, many means of building each other up. And he's given two ordinances, sometimes called sacraments baptism, and the Lord's Supper. 

Baptism was commanded by Jesus, he said, Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, the church baptizes. Because Jesus said to baptize, water baptism is a sign that he's given. There's one body, one spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, baptism is a sign of our unity under God, a sign of being washed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, a sign of being buried with him in baptism, and raised again with him to newness of life. 

Now, Christians have had some disagreements about the actual mode of baptism, and about exactly who ought to be baptized, whether children or believers ought to be baptized or only professing believers. But let's not let disagreements about baptism, hide the truth about the unity and baptism that we belong to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that were washed in the precious blood that when we put our faith in Jesus were born again in baptism is a sign of that. It's a picture of that. 

But it's also God's way of making it more official of confirming it on our hearts and encouraging us by his seal. And then there's the Lord's Supper. And this two comes directly as an institution from Jesus Christ. Jesus said, This is my body, which is for you do this in remembrance of me. And he said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, do this, whatever you drink it, in remembrance of me. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. 

So the Lord's Supper is a way that Jesus has given us to keep our minds on him to remember him not as a distant figure, but to remember him as the one who has saved us from our sins by his death, who reigns right now and gives us life by His Holy Spirit, who's coming again. So re rent remembrance is not just thinking back to long ago, but remembrance is bringing to mind the present reality of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

And so we have something that we can smell something that we can touch something that we can taste something we can swallow, that reminds us of the reality of Jesus Christ and the tokens of his precious lot of His precious blood and his body for us. 

And so the Lord's Supper is another sign a picture of what Jesus has done for us by His Body and Blood and giving us nourishment for our faith, for everlasting life by His Holy Spirit. And again, it's a seal whenever we do it, we're professing again our faith in him, but more than that, we're receiving from Him by faith, his gracious gifts earned for us by His sacrifice on the Cross.

Baptism and the Lord's Supper are those two great things that the church has been doing for 2000 years, because Jesus instituted those as a blessing, to confirm us in our faith, and to help us to keep our faith focused on him. The church is the one body of God's people, throughout all generations and from all nations. And Jesus gives two signs and seals of God's grace to his church, baptism and the Lord's Supper. These seal the promises of the gospel that is preached in the church, that's taught in the church. They never replace the word in the church, but they confirm that gospel word to God's people from all nations.