body of Christ – Gospel Progress

2019-03-18

Gave Him as Head Over All

As I’ve taught my four kids how to drive, I’ve wished for a brake on the floor of the passenger side of my vehicle. It’s just so hard to give up control over many realms of our lives–but especially when it comes to spiritual things. Allowing Jesus to be lord or head over us is difficult.

In answer to the popular bumper sticker, “God is my co-pilot,” Christians who understand this principle of Jesus as head have said, “If God is your co-pilot, switch seats.” This doesn’t mean at all that God should control us as robots, but rather that we need to live our lives in submission to Him.

I. Ephesians 1:15-23. Our Head is exalted above every name. All other churches, groups, clubs, organizations, and businesses are temporal. Many do a lot of good in the world for a lot of people, but when one day the elements melt in the heat, all of them will be gone. Only the church that Jesus promised to build (Matthew 16:18) and bought with His blood (Acts 20:28), His bride, His body is eternal. God invests so much, including His great power, into those who make up His body.

II. Matthew 8:8-10. For the church, our Head is over all things. All authority in heaven and on earth was given to Jesus through His death, burial, and resurrection. Even sinners will be put under His feet in the Judgment to come (Hebrews 10:12-14). He understands what it means to be our Head, but we struggle to submit to our Head. Sin and selfishness or adding or taking away from our Head’s Word exalts ourselves as Head over us, no matter how we justify it to ourselves.

III. 2 Peter 1:3-4. Our Head’s body is the fullness of Him who fills all in all. In all other groups, there is a separation between the management and the workers. Not so in the one eternal organization, the Lord’s church. Using marriage to illustrate the relationship of the Head to His body (Ephesians 5:22-24), we understand that Jesus gives us every blessing so that we may be partakers of the divine nature. In other words, He fills us and we are His fullness.

Now that is a Head that we can freely submit ourselves to! His bride does submit to the Bridegroom. The big question is–are we as individuals submitting to our Head to be part of His bride?

2017-03-20

War won by privates

General Eisenhower once rebuked one of his generals for referring to a soldier as “just a private.” He reminded him that the army could function better without its generals than it could without its foot soldiers. “If this war is won,” he said, “it will be won by privates.” In the same way, it is the common, servant-like believer who becomes the very backbone of the body of Christ. We are often overly impressed by our great evangelists and superstar Bible teachers and leaders who stand before large crowds, but if the glorious message of the person and work of Christ is to reach the world, it will be done by a church that functions as bondslaves of the Savior (cf. Luke 12:15; Luke 12:32; 2 Peter 2:19; 1 John 3:17). —J. Hampton Keathley

2013-05-20

Thank you for Christian friends

Thank you, Lord, for Christian friends who encourage us, provide us with cheerful companionship and brace us in our faith.

Thank you that we can share our joys and hurts together and be accepted and cheered and comforted.

Thank you for the sincere love and transparent honesty that help us grow in the body of Christ. Continue reading “Thank you for Christian friends”