Alright, so we maybe just start again in
Hebrews chapter 6.
We're dealing with a foundation.
And maybe at the end of this series
you'll know them off by heart.
Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 1 Therefore leaving
the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ,
let us go on to perfection, not laying
again the foundation of repentance from dead works,
and of faith toward God, of the doctrine
of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of
resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
And this we will do if God permits.
Now, we're going to deal with verse 2,
the first one there, the doctrine of baptisms,
and you'll notice that it is baptisms in
the plural.
So, obviously inferring that there is more than
one baptism.
Now, he doesn't tell us what the other
baptisms are, or what all the baptisms are.
And so we have to go to the
various scriptures to see which they are.
There are in fact four in my understanding.
And this confuses some people sometimes.
They find it very difficult to understand how
there can be four baptisms.
But you'll see them as we go along.
The first one is baptism into Christ.
The second one, baptism into water.
The third one, baptism in the Holy Spirit.
And the fourth one, baptism in suffering.
Now, we're going to deal with the first
one, which is baptism in Christ.
But before we do that, we need to
just talk about this concept of baptism, because
it is obviously fundamental to the next four
weeks.
And the word is a confusing word, because
it is just like faith, it is a
religious word.
It's a word which has very clear religious
connotations.
And it's rather sad, because of that we
don't get a correct understanding of the meaning
of that word and the way in which
that word is used.
The word baptism is not an English word.
It never existed in English until they came
to translate in 1611 the Bible under the
authorisation of King James into the King James
Bible, or the authorised version.
And when they did that, they came across
this word in the Greek, which is called,
which in Greek is baptizo, and they now
had to translate this word.
Now, that created a problem for them, because
the word simply means to dip, or to
immerse.
That's all that it means.
It has no religious connotations in its natural
use in Greek.
But if they were to translate it correctly,
if they were to translate it immerse, or
to dip, that would create a problem for
them, because they were not doing that, particularly
as far as word baptism was concerned, because
these were Church of England scholars, and they
were sprinkling, and so immediately they had a
problem.
So if they translated this correctly, they would
now have a problem, because what they were
doing, and what they were translating were two
different things.
So they took the easy way out, and
what they did is they kept the Greek
word, and they simply anglicised it.
And so they changed it from baptizo to
baptism, and even if you look in the
English, it is spelt with a Z, which
would normally be spelt with an S, which
shows how it came across from the Greek.
Now that, as I say, creates a problem,
because now we have this religious word, which
some people associate with sprinkling, other people associate
with immersion, or with adult baptism.
Now we will deal with that as we
go along, but the sad thing is, because
of that confusion now, we lose out on
some very important teaching the Scripture has, on
other aspects of this great doctrine.
Particularly this first one, which we are going
to deal with tonight, which is the baptism
in Christ.
And you will see why this is important.
But I want to just read you a
little piece, which comes from Thais, and which
deals with the origin of this word in
the Greek language, and the actual meaning of
the word.
Now Thais quotes a Greek poet and physician,
a man called Nicander, who lived about 200
BC.
And so this is in classical Greek writing,
and he says that this man has a
recipe for making pickles.
Now this is not a very sanctified thing,
but obviously this is how the word is
used, to make pickles.
And there are in fact two Greek words,
the one is baptizo, and the one is
bapto.
They are two different words based on the
same root.
Now you will see the meaning and the
difference between these two.
He says that in order to make a
pickle, the vegetable should first be dipped, bapto,
into boiling water, and then baptizo, or baptized,
in the vinegar solution.
Both verbs concern the immersing of vegetables in
a solution, but the first is temporary, the
second, the act of baptizing the vegetable produces
a permanent change.
And so the one is just putting it
in and out, and the other one actually
allows for it to remain there.
But you can see that in both of
them, very clearly the pickle is dipped in,
it's immersed in either the boiling water initially,
or in the vinegar afterwards.
Now here's a very important aspect that Thayer
highlights, and this is one of the reasons
why I want to read this section from
him.
He says, When used in the New Testament,
the word more often refers to our union
and identification with Christ than to our water
baptism.
Now that is very important, because most people
when they hear about baptism, they immediately say,
water baptism, that's the thing that comes into
mind.
Now Thayer, who wrote a lexicon on New
Testament Greek, and is a respected scholar, he
says no, in fact, the most often times,
or the times when this word is most
often used, it has nothing to do with
water baptism.
It has to do with baptism in Christ.
Then he says, When used in the New
Testament, the word more often refers to union,
and identification with Christ, than to our water
baptism.
And he quotes Mark 16.16, He that
believes and is baptized shall be saved.
Now that's a very important verse, because many
people base a teaching on that called baptismal
regeneration, which basically says that unless you're baptized,
you're not saved.
You're not a true Christian unless you're baptized,
and they quote that verse, saying that he
that believes and is baptized shall be saved.
But you'll see that Mark 16.16 does
not necessarily refer to water baptism.
It may very well be referring to baptism
in Christ.
And he says, Christ is saying that mere
intellectual assent is not enough.
There must be a union with Him, a
real change, like the vegetable to the pickle.
And so, what he is also saying is
that that bapto does maybe not make a
major change, but baptizo results in a change
in the item that is dipped.
And so there's just very quickly the difference
between those words.
Now if we go to Romans 6, you'll
immediately see how this now becomes, how Romans
6 will take on new meaning for you,
I trust.
Now Romans 6 is used by most people
who teach water baptism to teach water baptism
from.
Romans 6 in fact does not teach water
baptism.
It says nothing about water baptism in Romans
6.
And let's read the first four verses.
What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may
abound?
Certainly not.
How shall we who died to sin live
any longer in it?
Would you not know that as many as
were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into
His death?
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism
into death, that just as Christ was raised
from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so we also should walk in
newness of life.
Now do you see any reference to water
there?
It makes no reference to water at all.
And in fact it tells us clearly what
we should be baptized into in this context.
We are not denying the principle of water
baptism, we will deal with that next week.
But he says in verse 3 very clearly,
Do you not know as many as were
baptized into Christ?
Baptized into Christ.
Now you see the problem because we have
this word baptize which has these religious connotations
and connotations of water.
But now if we replace that word baptize
there with the word that should have been
there which is immersed and we read it
again.
Now you will see in verse 3, let's
read verse 3 again, it says, Or do
you not know that as many as were
immersed into Christ Jesus were immersed into His
death?
Therefore we who were buried with Him through
immersion into death that just as Christ was
raised from the dead by the glory of
the Father even so you also should walk
in the universe of life.
You can see that it takes on a
totally different meaning.
And this in fact is the correct reading
of that passage.
So what is Paul teaching here in Romans
chapter 6?
He is saying that we should be taken
and be placed into Christ.
The same way as you would take the
pickle and you would put it into the
vinegar he says we must be placed into
Christ.
Now obviously this is not a physical thing.
This is not something that happens in the
body.
This is a spiritual thing that he is
speaking about.
And you would have to pick up the
whole argument that Paul develops over several chapters
here in the book of Romans.
And he is dealing with a whole process
of salvation.
How do I actually get saved?
How am I actually freed from the law?
How am I actually freed from the issue
that we spoke about before, dead works.
How do I get rid of those things?
How do I escape God's judgment?
And he says the only way I can
do that is if I cease to exist.
Because as long as I exist I am
guilty of the law.
As long as I exist I am worthy
of God's judgment.
But if I cease to exist the demands
of the law upon me cease.
And he uses the picture of marriage.
And he says that if someone is married
to someone the only thing that can break
that marriage is death.
Nothing else can separate.
We know that we have divorce today and
Jesus said that wasn't the plan from the
beginning.
That wasn't the way that God designed it.
But the only thing that can break that
covenant between two people is death.
And now he says in the same way
the only thing that can break the hold
of the law of the Old Testament upon
us is death.
And so what needs to happen is I
need to die.
But unfortunately the problem is if I have
to die physically I would be dead.
And if I'm dead I would be damned
because I died in my sins.
But he says what has happened and this
is quite a complicated argument that he presents
here but what happened is he says in
fact he places us in God placed us
in Christ.
And when Jesus was nailed to the cross
we died with Christ in God's reckoning.
Now as I say this is maybe a
little bit complicated but if you read these
chapters you'll find that this is the argument
that he presents.
And so we were placed in Christ.
And so that when Jesus died we died.
Which now released the hold of the law
upon us.
Which released the old judgments and condemnation that
was against us from us.
And when Christ rose again we rose again
in him.
And this is the argument he presents.
So that we can now be new people.
So having confused you with that I trust
that you'll just mull over that and just
read these chapters.
Read particularly chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7
of Romans.
And you'll pick up that picture.
But now you'll see what he is saying
here then.
In verse 2 of chapter 6 he says
How shall we who died to sin live
any longer in it?
Now he says as Christians as far as
we are concerned as far as God is
concerned we have died to sin.
Sin no longer has a hold over us.
And he uses the picture of a slave
and a master.
And he says sin is no longer our
master.
What freed us from the hold of sin
in our lives?
Death.
But now he explains how we died.
You do not know that as many of
us as were baptized or put into or
immersed into Christ Jesus were immersed into his
death.
Now I know that you may find that
difficult to accept but that's what the word
of God says and what we've got to
do is we've got to accept some of
these things by faith.
And so when Paul says that when Jesus
died when we were immersed in him and
we died with him and then he continued
we have to believe that and accept that
by faith.
Now verse 4 says Therefore we were buried
with him through baptism into death that just
as Christ was raised from the dead by
the glory of the Father even so we
also should walk in newness of life.
So what does he say?
He is saying we were placed into Christ
and we became one with him in his
death and we became one with him in
his burial and we became one with him
in his resurrection.
Now this is a spiritual picture and we
say well how can that happen?
Christ died 2000 years ago I was only
born 15 years ago.
I'm still young you see.
So how is it possible that that could
happen?
But remember that God is not bound by
time.
God doesn't operate in the context of time
and so 2000 years ago and today and
2000 years in the future with God is
now.
It's all now.
God has no past and present and future.
God doesn't operate in the context of time
and so God is able to do that
in his economy.
And so what he presents here and let's
now get down to the more simple aspects
of this having left you with something to
chew on and that is that there is
just a simple process that we have been
placed in Christ we have been immersed in
Christ.
Now that is very important for a number
of reasons and this is very central to
the teaching of the New Testament.
It's essential first of all in order for
us to be saved because the way we
are because of our sinful nature because of
the marks of sin upon us both physically
and emotionally and spiritually and intellectually in every
way sin has marked us and has scarred
us and because of that we cannot enter
into the presence of God we cannot ever
be acceptable in the presence of God and
so what God does is he makes provision
for us to be placed inside of Christ
and within Christ we become acceptable to God.
So it's the same way as you take
something that doesn't look very good and very
acceptable and you wrap it up in a
parcel and now that thing becomes it looks
very pretty, it looks very acceptable because it's
wrapped in something which is presentable.
But the problem is still inside.
Now we know that our problem of sin
God is dealing with that and we'll speak
about that maybe a little bit in the
future.
But that's the only way we can be
acceptable to God.
Now we have an illustration in the Old
Testament which illustrates this very clearly I believe
and that is Jacob and Esau two brothers
they were twins Esau was born first and
Jacob was born a few minutes later because
of the fact that Esau was born first
he had the birthright and so all of
the blessings and all of the inheritance of
the father would go to Esau Jacob would
get nothing that was the custom in those
days.
Now Jacob does a deal with Esau he
buys the birthright from Esau for a pot
of stew but the day now comes when
the blessing has to be had from their
father and so they now go to or
Isaac now says I've got to give the
blessing and there's a problem now because now
Jacob has legally bought this birthright but his
father is now going to give it but
his father will never give it to the
younger son he's going to give it to
the older son but his father was blind
he probably had cataracts and so he couldn't
see anymore and so what happens is Isaac
says to Esau he says go out into
the field and go and kill an animal
he was a hunter and prepare me a
meal and when I've eaten I will give
you the blessing now Jacob's mother hears about
this and she says to Jacob now look
what we'll do is we go and kill
two little kids two goats they kill the
goats she prepares it just as Esau would
have prepared it she takes the skins of
those goats and she puts them on Jacob's
arms because Jacob was a smooth man the
scripture says he wasn't hairy whereas Esau was
a hairy man she puts Esau's clothes on
Jacob and Jacob now comes before his father
his father can't see he hears the voice
and he says but this is Jacob's voice
and he says come let me embrace you
and he embraces and he smells the clothes
and he smells but this is Esau's clothing
he feels their arms and he says no
but this is this is this is he
must have been very hairy for a goatskin
to feel like what it was but so
he says yeah this is this feels like
Esau and he gives Jacob the blessing now
many people say but Jacob was a crook
then because he impersonated his brother and on
that basis he received the blessing but in
fact what this teaches us is exactly the
way in which we have to receive blessing
from God if Jacob appeared before God and
he said before his father Esau and he
says how's it father Esau here I am
I'm Jacob I want the blessing you can
imagine what his father would say to him
he'd say look I've got no blessing for
you the blessing is not yours the blessing
is your brother's and that's what happens if
we stand before God and we say God
I want blessings I want eternal life I
want salvation I want heaven whatever it is
and God says but you can't have it
because it's not yours to have and so
what have we got to do we've got
to come in another way and I'm not
suggesting that we come in a dishonest way
because this is the provision that God has
made for us and so we come not
in our own name if we have to
come and say hey Lord here I am
whatever my name is God says I don't
know who you are you're a sinner you're
dead as far as I'm concerned you don't
count but we come in the name of
our brother Jesus Christ and we say father
and that's how we pray every time we
pray we pray in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ because if we pray in
our own name we'll get nothing but if
we pray in the name of the Lord
Jesus that makes it acceptable but we come
not only in his name but we come
closed with Jesus placed inside of Jesus and
you'll see this teaching as it goes through
in the New Testament we'll go through quite
a few more verses now and so we
come in and so when God looks at
us and of course God is not stupid
God doesn't God knows that we're inside there
but he finds his son acceptable he finds
it acceptable that we come in the name
of his son closed with his son with
his son's clothing with his son's righteousness with
Jesus' righteousness and obviously remember that animals have
been killed and so blood had been shed
in order for Jacob to have his arms
covered and of course blood had been shed
on the cross of Calvary for us so
that we might be able to be acceptable
before God and so when we come to
God for blessing or for whatever it is
we come not in our own name but
we come in the name of our brother
in the same way we come hidden in
Christ and the father looks at his son
and he says I'm pleased with my son
and therefore I can give you a blessing
and that's why works don't count dead works
remember the first principle because it doesn't matter
what I do God's not interested in it
there's only one who ever pleased him and
that was his own son the Lord Jesus
this is my beloved son he said on
two occasions in whom I am well pleased
here he him and so there's very briefly
the principle that he establishes here now also
before we move on from Romans 6 you'll
see another important thing about this aspect of
baptism and that is the comparison to the
death and the burial and the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus now you'll see in water
baptism the same picture and so the person
would go into the water be buried and
then come out on the other side it's
a picture of a grave in the same
way now if we go to 2 Corinthians
chapter oh no sorry let's go to Galatians
chapter 3 and if you can't keep up
that's fine but we have quite a few
scriptures I want to show you quickly Galatians
chapter 3 and verse 26 for you are
all sons of God through faith in Christ
Jesus now that's what we dealt with last
week we come by faith we accept and
we believe in the Lord Jesus verse 27
for as many of you as were baptized
into Christ have put on Christ isn't that
what we've exactly been saying and so when
I'm put into Christ I've put on Christ
and so the father doesn't see me he
sees Christ and then in verse 28 says
there is neither Jew nor Greek there is
neither slave nor free there is neither male
nor female for you are all one in
Christ Jesus and if you are Christ then
you are Abraham's seed and he is according
to the promise and so when God looks
at me he doesn't see me as a
South African or white or black or Greek
or whatever it is because he doesn't actually
see me he's actually seeing the Lord Jesus
Christ and that's why he says it doesn't
matter whether you were of Greek origin or
of Hebrew origin as far as God is
concerned those things don't exist anymore because we
are in Christ that is the way we
come and so you'll see again here the
issues of faith that we become sons in
that process and that we are baptized into
Christ and thereby put on Christ and so
again that concept now right through the New
Testament about 150 times in the New Testament
you'll find this phrase in him or in
Christ those two those two or sorry and
the third one in me sometimes Jesus spoke
about in me in John chapter 15 he
says abide in me and so remaining in
him so about 150 times you find this
concept so it's a very important concept in
the New Testament I'm going to just take
you to a few in fact quite a
few but I believe it's important that we
now see the consequences of this quite complicated
thought that I've presented to you let's go
to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 few books back
in fact one book back 2 Corinthians chapter
5 and verse 17 therefore
if anyone is in Christ you see the
same the same concept if anyone is in
Christ he is a new creation old things
have passed away behold all things have become
new it's a very well known verse and
so again he's saying we're not in Christ
I cease to exist I become something new
I become someone new I become someone in
Christ in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 another book
back and verse 2 the second verse 1
Corinthians 1 verse 2 to the church of
God which is at Corinth to those who
are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be
saints with all who in every place called
call on the name of Jesus Christ our
Lord both theirs and ours and so just
the concept here of sanctified or cleansed or
purified in Christ and so how how am
I cleansed I'm cleansed by the blood of
Jesus but I'm cleansed as I'm in him
and so again you see that all of
my salvation is tied up in this concept
that I'm placed in Christ and so I
become a new creature in Christ I become
sanctified or cleansed or washed or made holy
in Christ 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse
22 1 Corinthians 15 22 for as in
Adam all die even in Christ all shall
be made alive and so not only does
this concept deal with the process of getting
saved it deals with the process of the
end and he says that even as in
Adam all died even so in Christ all
shall be made alive so what is my
guarantee of the resurrection because Christ lives and
because he lives I will also live this
is what Jesus said and so as as
as we all died in Adam we will
all live in Christ 2 Corinthians chapter 2
jumping around a bit but a few pages
on 2 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 14
now thanks be to God who always leads
us in triumph in Christ and through us
diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every
prayer 2 Corinthians 2 and verse 14 and
so he leads us in triumph or in
victory in Christ so where is our victory
not in our spirituality or in our spiritual
vitality or anything that we happen to be
our victory lies in Christ and so God
leads us in victory in Christ if I'm
outside of Christ I'm going to be weak
I'm going to be defeated and this is
the problem and so the devil can get
to me if I'm outside of Christ but
if I'm in Christ I'm strong because he
has all power he has all authority and
so I'm absolutely victorious can be absolutely victorious
if I remain within Christ and then in
let's go to Galatians next book Galatians chapter
2 and verse 4 but
this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought
in who came in by stealth to steal
out our liberty which we have in Christ
Jesus that they might bring us into bondage
now this whole issue of Galatians speaks about
spiritual bondage and law and legalism and people
being manipulated and controlled by these things but
he's saying that we have been made free
in Christ it's not a restrictive thing to
be placed into Christ it is in fact
a liberating thing and that goes back to
the book of Romans which deals with the
issue of the law and the way we've
been set free from the law the next
book Ephesians chapter 1 and this is this
is a wonderful one as well Ephesians chapter
1 and verse 3 blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who
has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in
the heavenly places in Christ so God has
given us all blessings in Christ not outside
not anywhere else and so again you'll see
that everything we have is to be found
in Him in the book of Colossians two
books on Colossians chapter 2 and the book
of Colossians in fact has many many times
speaks about in Christ all the different things
that we have in Him but Colossians chapter
2 and verse 6 as you therefore have
received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in
Him and so it doesn't mean that I
cease to live that I'm because we spoke
about me ceasing to live but Paul speaks
about this and he says that I'm not
living anymore but the life which I now
live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God and so
although I cease to have my own identity
I've now taken on Christ's identity as far
as God is concerned but I still walk
in Him I still am alive and I'm
still progressing but within Christ not in myself
anymore not in my own right or my
own identity but within Christ I continue to
walk and then also in Colossians chapter 2
and verse 10 few verses down he says
and you are complete in Him who is
the head of all principality and power and
so my completeness and my perfection now remember
let's just go back a little bit to
the book of Hebrews chapter 6 and he
says that we need to not lay this
foundation once we've laid the foundation what we
need to do is go on to perfection
now that word perfection means completeness or maturity
now how will we become mature how will
we become complete as we become more in
Christ because our completeness is to be found
in Christ because it's not me any longer
but it is Him and as He as
my identity becomes less pronounced and His identity
His personality His characteristics His way of responding
His values as those things become mine so
I become more complete alright and then the
last one I'm not going to take you
there but John chapter 15 verse 4 I've
quoted already Jesus says abide in me remain
in me and so it's not something which
we must do like the pickle is taken
in the hot water and put in the
hot water taken out again but in fact
we should be baptised into Christ like the
pickle is in the vinegar and as long
as that pickle is in the vinegar that
pickle is safe and it can last many
years but if part of the pickle sticks
out above the vinegar it's going to rot
it's safe as long as it's inside there
and so we need to remain in Christ
we need to abide in Him and so
there is that first aspect and we want
to now move on to another aspect of
being placed into Christ or being immersed or
baptised into Christ so the first aspect is
a theological thing which really deals with the
way in which I get saved and the
way that God sees me no longer seeing
me with my frailties and my weaknesses and
that's what gives us great confidence so that
when I come into God's presence and I
need something from Him sometimes we feel but
I can't ask because I failed and I
did so many bad things and I but
you know all of those things are dealt
with because of the fact that God doesn't
see my failures He sees the perfection of
His Son the Lord Jesus and His Son
covers those things His blood washes them away
and so we're able to come into His
presence at any time with confidence and with
boldness knowing that in fact He receives us
because He receives His Son the Lord Jesus
now let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 12
and we're not going to jump around much
more anymore we're just going to look at
these two chapters in Corinthians and this is
1 Corinthians chapter 12 and so the second
aspect now of being placed in Christ is
that as far as the practical reality of
living in this world is concerned spiritually in
God's reckoning I've been placed in Christ but
we can't see that we don't really we
cannot really that cannot really be made manifest
in any way but there is a way
in which it is manifest and that is
that Christ is represented in the world by
His church and so how do we see
Jesus in fact we see Him through the
church how do we hear Him we hear
Him through the church in fact we should
we should do now remember Jesus said to
Paul on the road to Damascus Paul said
but who are you Lord and Jesus says
I am Paul whom you are persecuting but
who was Paul persecuting He wasn't persecuting Jesus
Jesus was in heaven so who was Paul
persecuting He was persecuting the church but Jesus
made no distinction between Himself and the church
He says if you are persecuting me He
says the church He says you are persecuting
me that is Jesus' statement to Paul and
in fact Jesus says in Matthew He says
that if you have done anything to the
least of these my brethren speaking about giving
someone a cup of water or visiting someone
when they are not well or when they
are in prison or when they have a
need He says if you have done it
to the least of these my brethren you
have done it to me and so how
do I relate to how do I bless
God I bless Him by blessing the church
how do I how do I how do
I love God I love Him by loving
the church and obviously we have a personal
relationship with Him but we also have a
relationship with Him through the church through the
body now you will see this concept here
in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 13
and He says for by one spirit we
were all baptized into one body whether Jews
or Greeks whether slaves or free and we
have all been made to drink into one
spirit now you will see the same word
here baptized the spirit does the work now
we will introduce you to that concept next
week but there are three aspects very quickly
to baptism there is the person who is
baptized the candidate there is the element into
which is being baptized and there is the
person who does the baptizing those are the
three components or the three entities that are
involved in the process now here you will
see them very clearly here He says who
does this work of baptizing us into Christ
it is the spirit it is the Holy
Spirit that does this it is not something
I can do it is not something any
church can do or any minister can do
this is something that God does by His
spirit so verse 13 by one spirit we
were all baptized into one body and so
that is the element into which we are
baptized the body of Christ in fact and
then who is the candidate of course it
is the believer the new believer here now
you will see He speaks about one body
what is this body well clearly if you
read Corinthians 1 Corinthians 12 He now speaks
not about Christ's physical body that was in
the grave and that was raised again on
the third day and is now ascended into
heaven but He is speaking about His church
now as I said the scripture draws very
little distinction between the Lord Jesus and His
church they are we are His body He
is the head of that body and so
now He says that by the spirit we
are when we are placed into Christ we
were also placed into the church also placed
into the church now here is a huge
question what is that church and lots of
people will argue and have lots of ideas
as to what it is but let me
just tell you that it is not a
denomination it is not any particular individual church
when He speaks here about the church when
He speaks about the body of Christ when
the scripture speaks about the body of Christ
it speaks about the body of Christ or
the church in two ways one there is
the universal church now we cannot see that
that is a spiritual concept and that is
made up of every believer every Christian who
is born again not only living now but
who lived in the last 2000 years and
who will live until Christ comes all Christians
who are born again form part of the
universal church whether we like that or not
whether they in the denomination that we happen
to be in or not is besides the
point this is a spiritual reality the church
consists not of all denominations but of all
true believers the church does not consist of
all local churches it consists of all true
believers and so if we are truly born
again we are part of that church this
is a reality which God has brought about
but then the church is secondly manifest in
a very practical way and that is in
the form of local congregations local congregations local
fellowships and so God places us in a
local fellowship where we can actually act and
interact and relate to other people and now
we need to just look at this very
quickly in verse chapter 12 and verse 14
the next verse he says for in fact
the body is not one member but many
and then he says he speaks about the
foot and the hand and the eye all
having different functions and so what is he
saying he is saying that it is not
just sufficient to say I am part of
the universal church now I can sit back
and somehow just relax but he now speaks
about functioning and so how do I function
unless I am part of a local church
unless I am part of a local fellowship
whatever name may be on the door whichever
way they meet as long as it is
on a biblical basis on a biblical principles
and we are not going to go into
all of those details but clearly what he
is saying here is that the spirit has
taken me put me into a body and
I now need to function any
kind of church for that matter God places
us in the church through his spirit that
happens when we are born again and it
is a work of God even beyond that
I believe that God places us in local
fellowships as it pleases him now that does
not mean that you are there forever it
does not mean that you cannot move from
there when God indicates that you now need
to move on maybe for whatever reasons the
time has come for you to move from
one fellowship to the other now we are
not saying that we must every week be
in another fellowship that kind of instability is
clearly not what the scripture teaches but at
the same time we cannot use the scripture
and say because you are in this church
or that church you have to be in
that church for the rest of your life
you may spiritually outgrow that situation God may
have a mission field or a job for
you in another place and the time may
come for you to move but in the
meantime we need to have an assurance in
our hearts and say this is where God
wants me to be right now it may
not be where he wants me to be
in a years time or two years time
but he wants me to be in this
particular place or that particular place and I
need to function and I need to be
a living member in that church this is
part of this whole process that God brings
about and then in verse 27 in the
same chapter he says now you are the
body of Christ and members individually you are
the body of Christ but members individually and
God has appointed these in the church first
apostles, second prophets, thirdly teachers after that miracles
and gifts of healings and so on and
so what is he saying?
He is saying that we have different functions,
we have different gifts and we need to
operate in those areas, we can't just be
passengers many people change churches because they say
I know but I am not getting anything
out of it you are not in the
church to get anything out of it you
are in the church to give, to participate
and to play your role and then in
1 Corinthians chapter 14 now all of this
is sandwiched or sandwiches the chapter 13 which
deals with the issue of love and says
that it doesn't matter what we do it
doesn't matter how we function in the church
it doesn't matter how great our gifts are
if we don't have love we are wasting
our time but chapter 14 now and verse
23 it says therefore if the whole church
comes together in one place and all speak
with tongues and they come in those who
are uninformed or unbelievers will they not say
that you are out of your mind now
all I want to take out of there
is the beginning of that verse when the
whole church comes together in one place now
you can see there when he speaks about
the church he's not speaking about a denomination
how can the whole denomination come together in
one place that's impossible how can the universal
church come together in one place it cannot
happen that will happen in heaven we will
be in one place together when we get
to heaven but in the meantime he's saying
obviously writing to the people in Corinth and
he says when you guys come together the
whole church in that local in that locality
in that place and then in verse 26
how is it then brethren when you come
together each of you has a psalm has
a teaching has a tongue has a revelation
has an interpretation that all things to be
done for edification or to build up and
so again you see he's emphasizing the fact
that when we come together everyone has a
part to play everyone has a contribution to
make it's not a situation where we come
and there's one man and he teaches or
he does the preaching and the rest of
us sit down and we say that's very
nice and we go home but in fact
each one has a role to play and
this is the concept that he's introducing here
now we can't elaborate on that any further
tonight but you can see the importance then
of the fact that I need to be
if I'm born again it's not even something
that I need to do but if I'm
born again I'm placed in Christ first of
all that's theologically the truth and with that
comes tremendous blessings but secondly I'm actually placed
into the church into the body of Christ
which is Christ on earth in that sense
is represented on earth by the church and
in that situation I now need to find
my proper place and I need to function
as a member of that church Amen Let's
just pray Father we thank you for this
wonderful concept of being placed in Christ and
Lord we know that it's a very difficult
concept to deal with and to understand but
we pray that you by your spirit would
make these things clear and plain to us
Lord as we go through these great blessings
that you have given to us as we
are placed in Christ but Lord also as
we understand the great responsibilities which are ours
as you have placed us in the body
of Christ upon this earth and so Lord
as we have responsibilities in our local fellowships
we pray Lord that we may be faithful
in those things and Lord that we may
be those members that are truly functioning in
the way that you want us to function
and truly members of the body of Christ
as you have indeed paid a great price
to bring us into this blessing we ask
these things in Jesus name Amen