The Body of Christ!

The other day I was listening to radio when I heard an advertisement to order free a daily devotional written by a well-known national preacher and teacher of the bible. Now I have heard this man speak and he is an awesome speaker and a great teacher. This daily devotional is to be used as a guide to help us develop a personal relationship with God. But there was this one thing about the advertisement that struck a chord with me that change the way I viewed the teaching of this man. The announcer at the end of the commercial said that this teacher teaches us that we should not be concern with other people, but only focus on our own personal relationship God.

Not only did this final statement go against what I have learned and been taught as a Christian, but it went against what Jesus himself taught us and told us. You all should know before I continue that I talked to another Minister that I respect a lot who has worked with this man and I did some additional research, and I found out that the announcer at the end of the commercial was misquoting this minister. What he teaches is before you can go out and help people and tell them about God you must first seek God and get to know Him on a personal level. This goes alone with what we have been taught, but a problem still exists.

There has been a new age revolution of thinking that is based on the statement that the announcer made. It is this thinking that has allowed people of the world to be oppressed, mistreated, and great in justices to survive. We hear it on the news, in our music, and in our movies if it does not affect me or my family why should I care? Why should I get involved? Because Jesus said too! If you all would please turn your bibles to Luke chapter 10 verse 25.

25
There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test him and said, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

26
Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?"

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He said in reply, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself."

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He replied to him, "You have answered correctly; do this and you will live."

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But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

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Jesus replied, "A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.

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A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.

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Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.

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But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight.

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He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him.

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The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, 'Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.'

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Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers' victim?"

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He answered, "The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

You see the laws of Moses say “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind.” This is that developing a personal relationship God, but it goes on to say that we should love our neighbor as ourselves.” This tells us that we are called to help one another, to show mercy, and to care for each other.

Now the story that we just finished reading is preceded in the bible by a story of the disciples returning to Jesus after they had been away curing the sick and driving out demons in His name with out him. They were rejoicing, celebrating, and getting there party on with fact that they were able to be Christ hands and feet, and do His work when He could not be there. We too are called to be Christ hands and feet.

Colossians 1:17 says “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church;” and 1 Corinthians 12:27 says “Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it”. So, Jesus is the head of the Church and we are His Body. Now think about that for a moment, the head of a person contains their brain, their mouth, their eyes, and their ears. So, if Jesus is our Head, He should control our thinking, speaking, the way we see things, and what we listen to. And the brain controls all of the body's action, but we are the body of Christ so Jesus should be in control of us as well.

Are we fulfilling our role in the Body of Christ? Or are we like the foot that is asleep? Think about it. When your foot falls asleep, it makes it hard for your whole body to move; it hinders your progress and causes discomfort.
Do you know there is a course that doctors take in medical school that teaches them to find pressure points in your hands and feet and to massage them or press them that will relieve most of the common pain you feel in your body? (Headaches, backaches, and even nausea.) We are Christ’s body, His hands, and feet! So we must find the pressure points that are causing our body pain and go and massage that problem out. We have to help feed and clothed the poor, we have to help take care of the sick, we have to heal the lost and depress, and we have to do take care of our enemies. We will go where God sends us and be his hands and feet. But it will not be easy.

James warns us in his second chapter about keeping God’s love to ourselves. He says “My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism”. Then he goes on to tell the story of two men entering into an assembly. One is rich man dressed in fine clothing with a gold ring and the other is dressed in dirty cloths. We say to the rich man sit here up front this is a good seat and we say to the dirty man oh go stand over there out of the way. By doing this we dishonor the poor man and God because God chose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs to his kingdom. What we are doing is showing partiality and committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. In other words we do not love all our neighbors as ourselves. We are only upholding part of what Jesus taught us. We are sitting in judgment and James warns us again at verse 13 “judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.”

Christ’s hands healed the lepers, they raised the dead, they made the blind see, and his feet took him everywhere he went. But nails pierced those same hands and feet. So when we start to live as His hands and feet, there will be people that will lie on you. They will be mean and rude. They will discourage you and try to get you to stop but we must press on and keep massaging out the pain. The Body of Christ needs every one of its members connected to each other, taking their orders from the Head, in full, active, living, service to accomplish what Christ wants done. Let us asked this of the Father today in Jesus name. Amen. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.