A Body of Hope

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, dear radio friends, how in the world are you? Yes, that familiar greeting establishes the fact that you and I are once again together for a few moments to open up God’s blessed, inerrant, infallible Word, the Bible, and to seek by the guidance of the Holy Spirit to put a handle on it so that you can get hold of it for yourself.

Come with me, then, to the first chapter of Colossians, verse 17, speaking of the Lord Jesus, Paul the Apostle says, “He is before all things and by him all things hold together.” That word consist means hold together.” Then he goes on to say, “He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the first born from the dead that in all things he might have the pre-eminence for it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. Having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself. By him I say whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven, and you that were some time alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now, hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. He is before all things. By him all things consist and he is the head of the body, the church.”

Now, verse 19 says, “It pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.” What is the fullness? He’s the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature, the creator and sustainer and he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the first born from the dead that in all things he might have the pre-eminence. We have to take this phrase by phrase, but I want you to see that that whole thing holds together as a package. What is the fullness of which the Holy Spirit speaks here concerning Jesus? The fullness, the fullness of which the Holy Spirit speaks, pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell, has to do with the fact that he’s God. He’s the redeemer, he’s the forgiver, he’s the revealer, the image invisible of God. He is the prototype, the first born of every creature. He is before all these things. He is the creator, he is the sustainer, he is the head of the church, he is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and Omega. He is God’s first demonstration of what our resurrection is going to be like, the first born from the dead, that in all these things he might have the pre-eminence. Well, that’s some savior we have, isn’t it?

Now, it says he is the head of the body, the church. The Lord Jesus Christ is in charge of the church. And when I say the church, I don’t mean simply the local church, that is simply a manifestation of the larger group that we call the church, the Body of Christ that’s made up of all believers everywhere. The Lord Jesus Christ is in charge of his church. He says, “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” What does it mean, beloved, to you and to me practically that the Lord Jesus is the head of his body, the church? What does that mean to us on Main Street on a Tuesday morning?

First of all, that we are part of something Christ is doing. When you gave your heart to the Lord Jesus and became a born from above Christian and then you later were baptized with believer’s baptism and united with a local church, when all of that occurred it was more than a religious transaction. And your life was more than one small phenomenon in the great panoramic structure of current history.

You and I, if we are viewed from the point of view of the whole world, we’re just little pinpoints or less, but when… See, the other point of view is when you get your eyes on Jesus, you begin to see how important He thinks you are. When you gave your heart to Christ and became a born from above Christian and you confessed him in believer’s baptism and united with the Church, the local church, what happened? You then became a part of what Jesus our Lord is doing in this world right now as he builds his church. You are somebody because you’re part of what Jesus is doing. Never look upon yourself as being unimportant and say, “Well, I’m just a lowly church member. I just sit in the pew and give my offering. See, I don’t really amount to much.” Oh, yes, you do. You are more important than you have ever dreamed. You have more influence than you ever thought you did. Your life has more potential reach to it than you have ever yet discovered, because Jesus is doing something in you. Paul the apostle said, “It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” He said in another reference, “Ye are laborers together with God.”

Now, with all of that in mind, look at your local situation. Is it discouraging? Yes, sometimes we must admit that church work can be discouraging. Do you have opposition? Oh, yes, a lot of people don’t realize how smart you are, right? Oh, yes, opposition now and again. Some of my finest ideas have died before they ever had a chance to get into work. I remember on one occasion, one of my eager young church members who had a small printing press and was gifted in the graphic arts helped me to design a church newspaper. I thought if we could publish a newspaper and it would have one of my sermons in it every issue and all of that, we’d be able to reach a wide audience of people in the area that I served. So I got that all laid out and I made the mistake of bouncing the idea against my deacons without their knowing anything about it ahead of time. And because they followed the traditional reaction of people because it was a new idea, they voted it down. The chairman looked at me severely and he said, “Young man, we brought you here to preach the Gospel not to fool around with printing presses.” And that was that. [laughter]

Oh, dear, I grieved about that for all of an hour, I guess. Some of your finest ideas, let’s face it, may not be agreed with or may not be appreciated by others. So yes, church work can be discouraging and it can be frustrating and you sometimes have opposition to the things you might think are important. But when you add it all up what really counts is that as a part of the local church, you are part of that larger group called the body of Christ, and you, my friend, are part of what God Almighty is doing in this day. Get the big view of Christian living, get the world size view of your ministry. Why, you can pray clear around the world before breakfast. You say, “I’m anchored, I can’t get anywhere, arthritis has got me anchored, I can’t go out, can’t lift any weights of any kind, can hardly climb any stairs. I can’t do anything.” Yes, you can. You can pray and you can get clear around the world before breakfast any given day. And your prayers could be answered half a world away and some precious faithful servant of God will suddenly feel the surging of divine strength and enablement and protection because you prayed. You are part of what God is doing in this world today.

That’s what one of the things that means that Christ is the head of the body. Another thing it means is that Christ is doing what He wants in spite of our frailties. Never give up on your church. There’s always hope for blessing and for revival. Don’t give up. Oh, I know that there are situations that either frustrates you or threaten to break your heart. And if I’m speaking to some dear pastor this day, you have faced, not once but many times, situations that made you weep or made you angry, as the case may be, and you thought, “I give up, I quit.” No, don’t quit. Don’t go around looking for another church because you’ll have the same problems there. You have the human race to deal with.
Don’t give up, because God is doing something. Read the history of revivals, get yourself a book that deals with the history of revivals, Edwin Orr has written a number of them, and find out how often and often, people who dared to pray and seek God, were rewarded by seeing revival come to their village or town or city or area in answer to prayer when everybody thought it was hopeless.

There is hope for the Church because Jesus is in charge. Don’t give up. Now, if you’re in a church situation where everything seems to be going wrong and everything seems to be dead and there isn’t any fruitfulness, and no one is being saved and folk are quarrelling and there’s a power structure going on, power-play going on all of that. Don’t give up on it instead, instead, beloved, get together with some faithful people who know how to get hold of the throne of grace in prayer. Doesn’t necessarily have to be your congregation, but find somebody who can pray without gossiping, who will really earnestly seek God with you in prayer over a period of time and you will be rewarded by seeing God work in that part of his church.

Yes, you will, God answers prayer. Jesus is at work in his church in this day and in your area as well, he’s the head of the body. First of all, it means that you are part of what Christ is doing. Second, it means that although you have discouragements and frustrations and heartbreaks along the way, you can know that the savior is still in charge and that God still answers prayer. He is the head of the body, the church.

Another thing that’s important to remember is that other people are part of his body too. And you’d better respect them, work with them, love them and accept them, because they too belong to Him. Now, not everybody is as nice as you and I, right? There are some people who are not simply difficult, they put thought into being impossible, and unfortunately, they seem to show up in situations where you’re trying to serve the Lord. I know that and so do you. What do you do about it? Get all upset and fussed or do you reject them and criticize them and strife? No, don’t do it. They belong to Jesus. Love them, accept them as they are, trust God to handle the thorny, abrasive parts of their nature as well as yours, let’s face it, and get on with the big work of winning souls to Jesus. Other people are part of his body too and they are important and you and I need to accept them and love them and work with them and pray for them. We’ll get at this again the next time we get together.

Dear Father, today, may we take our full place as members of the body of Christ. May we be of blessing and help to others who also belong to Him and may we have the faith to know that Jesus our Lord is at work in our day, in our lives, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!