Welcome to the Come to Jesus Daily Devotional as we continue in our series, God’s vision for the church. Today, as we finish this theme of the church being the body of Christ, Let’s be inspired by the truth that we are Jesus’ body and He wants to continue His ministry through us.
‘And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.’ (Colossians 1:18)
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I’m sure that we’ve all heard of the awful image of a chicken, having had its head cut off, running around the yard. I’m told that a chicken only survives for seconds after its head is removed. However, Mike the Headless Chicken lived for 18 months after his head was cut off in 1945 and holds the Guinness World Record for the longest surviving chicken without a head! May it never be said of us that the church has lost her head - has lost her connection to Christ.
David Prior in his commentary on 1 Corinthians, Quotes Bittlenger:
‘In order to accomplish his work on earth, Jesus had a body made of flesh and blood. In order to accomplish his work today, Jesus has a body that consists of living human beings.’
When we read the pages of the gospels, it’s exciting to realise that ‘Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever’ and so wants to continue His ministry in this world. It's both exciting and challenging to read of this idea in John:
‘Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.’ (John 14:12)
As the body of Christ, His church, is the principal vehicle through which Jesus continues to minister in this world. The metaphor itself speaks, amongst many things, of united action and movement. Paul speaks of being rightly connected to our ‘head’ (to Christ) and this leading to growth:
‘Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.’ (Ephesians 4:15-16)
We see here (as is repeated in Colossians 2:19) that when we are rightly connected to Jesus the head, His power and wisdom flow into the parts - the ‘supporting ligaments’ - and the body is healthy and grows as each part does its work. What does it mean for the body to grow and be built up? Both terms speak of enlargement. This growth involves two things: Firstly, as each part, connected to the Head, does its work, the church grows in health and maturity. Secondly, as each part, connected to Head, does its work, more people become Christians and so the church grows numerically. I guess that we could say that the two main aspects of The Great Commission (Acts 19:18-20) - maturity and evangelistic success - are fulfilled by when the body of Christ is rightly connected to the Head - to Jesus.
In speaking of Jesus being our ‘head’, Paul likens this to the relationships between a husband and wife. In his instructions to wives we get a real insight into how we are to act towards Jesus who is our head:
‘Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Saviour. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.’ (Ephesians 5:22-24)
Limiting this to the subject at hand, we can see that the body of Christ - the church - is to submit to Christ. In so doing, the relationship is healthy and Jesus’ ministry is enacted through His body to the world.
Response
In speaking of those who have gone back to legalistic forms of salvation and sinful attitudes, we read:
‘They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.’ (Colossians 2:19)
Can we say that Jesus is our head? Are we seeking salvation in Jesus’ grace alone? Are we seeking to submit to His authority? Are we seeking to hear His voice and wisdom in His Word? Are we submitting our gifts and resources to Him so as to work through us in the church and the world? Are we seeking ever stronger ‘connection with the head’?
Together meeting notes
At this week’s 'Together' evening, we will continue to reflect on our 'God's vision for the church' vision series. This week, we consider what it means for the church to be the body of Christ.
‘Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.’ (1 Corinthians 12:12-14)
Discuss:
What sorts of things does this metaphor of the body of Christ mean for how the church relates and operates?
What does it mean to be ‘baptised by one Spirit’? (Be careful to read the context of this phrase).
Read 1 Corinthians 12:27-31 and discuss: how have you grown in your gifts in the past? How are you or could you grow in your gifts in the present?
Pray together:
Pray for CCP to be a healthy body - united, diverse and submitted to Jesus our ‘head’.
Pray for your Community Group meetings to be places where we meet God in the Spirit and use our gifts to build one another up.
Pray for one another to be filled with the Spirit afresh so as to be empowered to use our gifts with greater effectiveness.
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