The Whole Body, Part 2: The Head

Well this morning we carry on with now part two of a series that I think is going to carry us into April as I was play praying and plotting and planning out what body parts we might cover in the weeks to come what what it might draw out as we work through this series and reflect and think about where we are as a body and I think it'll be helpful if we begin at the top and we'll over the weeks to come

Slowly work our way down. So we're gonna begin with the head here this morning in come

April. We'll end with the feet I might not hit every organ or limb or digit but Enough that I think will be helpful for us to really get an idea of the whole body that is to say what a sound or a healthy a mature a

Complete body ought to be like how it ought to function how it ought to worship and serve and love

And so we've we've named this series the whole body and again the idea of whole there

We even touched on during the interaction time last week Could be rendered the

Greek adjective there to lay us could be rendered Perfect or mature or complete it could have a connotation of soundness or health

That's what we're getting at with the whole body and we've read again 1st

Corinthians 12 14 through 26 as sort of our banner Looking at again this many -membered body

The body is not one member but many and so there's an interdependency upon the parts of the body

Every member has been joined to this body. Therefore The hand cannot say to the foot.

I have no need of you the I can't say to the stomach I have no need of you if the organs begin to rebel and contend against one another.

Where will the body be? How will the body function? We cannot have members of the body displaced in styrofoam containers on ice

We can't have the hand crawling around like the Adams family We all need to be intact and one that's the idea

Paul says indeed. There are many members yet one body and There's this not only this dependency, but there's this way of honor

Mutual honor he says those members of the body which we think to be less honorable on these we bestow greater honor on The unpresentable parts we bring about greater modesty the presentable parts have no need

So he's also rocking the normal dynamics that we bring in a worldly way of looking at one another

The metrics of dog -eat -dog Who's got the status who's got the influence who has the best seats the best presentation the best manner?

These parts we automatically give honor give place give weight To and Paul says no if you understand the way that the

Lord has composed the body You'll begin to think a little bit differently You'll be like James just because someone comes in with fine linens in a golden ring doesn't mean they get to sit at the helm

Rather those who seem to be dispensable as we said last week are Indispensable vital those members that seem to be weaker

Perhaps more immature we see is actually necessary for the growth and the maturity of the body

And so Paul says in this way, there should be no vying no fending no Discontentment no schism in the body.

In fact, all should have the same care one for another So this is what we're going to be focused on the whole body and we closed last week where we're going to begin this morning

Ephesians 4 the desire of this whole series of Looking at the whole body is that we may grow up in all things into him who is the head

Christ That's our focus this morning the head of the body who is

Christ From whom the whole body that's our series the whole body

Joined and knit together by what every joint supplies According to the effective working by which every part does its share causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love

So every member Functioning as it's intended to function serving with the grace that God has supplied with the gifting that is wrought by him

That Christ ascended and gave gifts to men and and so this this procession of the

Spirit brings about giftedness And so we're all assigned and designated into a body to function in this effective way

And it all flows from him who is the head and it all returns to him Who is the head all stems from him and all bends toward him?

That's the glory of the head who is Christ So this morning we begin with the head really three simple points to rather brief

The third one will be longer and as we begin our anatomy of a body proper We must begin all things must begin with the head who is

Christ So the first point is simply this Christ is the head of the body Plain and simple you want to understand what a church is

You cannot define you cannot begin to conceive of a church without rightly first Understanding the headship of Christ Christ is the head of the body the second point will be

Christ as the head bears all authority and Then the third point is that Christ as our head is all of our unity

And that's all we're going to cover this morning So let's begin with the first point Christ is the head of the body

Christ is the head of all those who belong to him He's the head in other words of all those who have saving faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ He's the head of all believers since all believers have saving faith in him

They are joined to him by the Spirit through that faith And as a result, they now compose or are comprised in the body of Christ The spirit of adoption has been poured out upon them by that spirit of adoption.

They cry Abba father God now owns them as his own he sees in them sons and daughters

Because he sees them in his son and so they rightly call him father

They rightly know him to be their father because they have been wed to the

Son Christ is the head of the bride the head of the church the head of his own body

We're gonna start to unpack in in a brief moment Very briefly this idea of the the mystical union of a husband and wife because Paul points in Ephesians 5

Back to Genesis 2 to explicate the mystery. That is Christ in the church and The point in Ephesians 5 is the point we're making here at the beginning

Christ is the head of the body. I think

Paul doesn't just say that in Ephesians 5. In fact, it's frequently found as A metaphor and and then as we'll see even as a title in several places in his letters 1st

Corinthians 11 He begins with this idea of Headship moving on from the headship of the father the headship of the son the headship of a husband

He says I want you to understand the head of every man is Christ Debatable whether that term man there should be translated as husband.

I would I would I Would think that would make sense of the context, but you're dealing with creation as well

And so some translators differ, but the point simply is establishing the hierarchy of authority

Christ is head over all men all man Christ is the head of every husband

Christ the head. That's 1st Corinthians 11 3 Ephesians 1 22 and 23 he put all things under his feet that is

God the Father put all things under the feet of Christ and gave him as Head over all things to the church, which is his body

Then here's the headship of Christ The Father put everything under his feet and Yet made him to be the head over all things to the church and What's the church?

Flesh of his flesh. It's his own body Just as a husband to a bride So Christ to his church

Ephesians 4 15 speaking the truth in love that it's actually Speaking is not a verb that's there in the original

It's simply the verb truth, but in English, we don't have a verb truth. We have that as a noun

Properly, it would be truthing in love. I Think the translators are right to say speaking the truth in love that fits very well with the usage in the context

But the reality is it's a lot more than speaking. It's not only speaking. It's truthing in love. It's conforming to the way of love practicing love

Truthing in love we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ Ephesians 4 15

So this growth comes from him and as I said it returns to him we grow up into him

Grow up in every way into him. Why because he's the head a Chapter later

Ephesians 5 23 Christ is the head of the church his body and is himself its

Savior Again even more concisely

Colossians 1 18 He is the head of the body the church and then in the next chapter in Colossians 2 verse 19

He's the head from whom all the body nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments

Grows with the increase that is from God You see again Paul relaying this metaphor this idea

Christ is the head of the church. That is his body or Christ is the head of the body

That is the church the headship of Christ Speaks on the first hand of the authority of Christ That's how it's used clearly in Ephesians 5, but it also speaks of the preeminence of Christ He's exalted over all things clearly.

That's the usage in Colossians 1 We'll get we'll get there at the very end maybe in longer form

On occasion Paul can use head to refer to a part of the body without referencing Christ That's what we have here in 1st

Corinthians 12 He doesn't seem to be explicitly referencing Christ when he uses the body part of the head in 1st

Corinthians 12 He's simply talking about body parts. The head can't say to the foot. I have no need of you

But elsewhere he goes beyond the metaphor and he seems to use the term head almost as a title for Christ Capital H.

He is the head of the church. It's more than an illustration He's talking about the preeminent authority that the sovereign power of the

Lord Jesus Christ now Some of you may be up to date with some of the debates that have swirled around issues of headship, maybe you've read a book or two on on marital roles or you're aware of some of the

Egalitarian pushback on complementarianism or patriarchalism or whatnot. If these are all I'm sounding like Charlie Brown's teacher right now.

Just you know, think happy thoughts just for a minute that's fine, but it all comes down to that term in Greek kephele, that's head and There seems to be a debate about how to translate or even understand that term

Should it merely be understood as authority? That's by far the most common usage, but there there is a special pleading case because you do have instances where kephele is is perhaps having the idea of an origin point or a source and so you have a lot of journal articles and monographs where Scholars go back and forth and they argue.

No, no No, when Paul is saying that the head of the wife is her husband, he's not meaning anything in terms of authority

He's meaning a source somehow like the provision the provider. He's the source

It doesn't really seem to hold much water But the idea is again how we understand that little term even in even in relation to a

Husband has a bearing on how we understand it in relation to Christ What does it mean for Christ to be the head over all things?

In Colossians 1 do you have the idea of a source? Certainly Christ is the one from whom all things exist for whom all things exist he is the he is the

Creator the the agency of the Creator God Who the

Father wills the Son creates by the Spirit every act of God is a Trinitarian act so certainly you have the idea of origin or source

But more than that you have the idea of authority because all things are put under his feet and this makes him the head

It seems to be that the issue of submission in a marriage or obedience relates not to source

That would be doing some exegetical gymnastics, but rather to authority the point is this and here's my case

Christ is now head of the body. That is the church by virtue of being exalted to the right hand of God Christ's headship over the body of the church as a result of his ascension to God That's the point.

I want to make he had to win the bride. That's the issue

He purchased her with his own blood That was the bridal dowry his own precious blood

He bought her he died for her Gave his life for her life that she might become one with him in in so doing he became the head of the body

The husband of the bride the bridegroom of course awaiting that consummation at the marriage supper of the lamb

He is specifically head over his body as the body is in submission to his authority

That's the point that Paul makes in Ephesians 5 23 and 24 But this headship goes far beyond that.

We don't want to use the analogy of a husband the parallel of a husband To exhaust all that Christ's headship means because again

Colossians 1 says his headship his authority his sovereignty is Comprehensive The world is made through him and for him

So we can't exhaust the meaning of headship To merely the parallel of a husband

But of course, it's really important that we understand this idea on the one hand of authority on the other hand of pre -eminence

Listen to how James Bannerman an old Scotsman who wrote a tremendous book called the

Church of Christ an excellent book on all things except where it strays from congregational polity It's a

Presbyterian book on the church It's an excellent book if you if you are willing to skip a few chapters the church as a society

He says owes its origin to Christ It derives from him its government its offices it receives from him its laws its

Constitution it draws from him its spiritual influence and all of its grace it accepts from his hand its ordinances its

Institutions it acts in his name. It's guided in all of its proceedings by his presence he is both its founder and its administrator the ever -present source of life and influence of Ordinance and blessing of law and authority of word and doctrine within her through his spirit through his word through his ordinances alike of government and grace

Christ is both the origin and the administrator of his church upon the earth That is an excellent way to understand what it means for Christ to be the head of the church

The church as the body of Christ is one of the most intimate metaphors we have in Scripture What's a more intimate?

Relationship speaking humanly than marriage There's no relationship so sensitive so vulnerable

So intimate there's no earthly relationship that scripture likens to a one -flesh union but marriage between a husband and a wife and It's that metaphor that becomes descriptive of our relationship to Christ as a congregation as a corporate body

In fact if you were to take away that metaphor if you were to take away the language of body and head

We would have a very hollow understanding of what the church is and what the church is to be like You of course have other ways of relation.

You have a shepherd and a flock or you have a builder and a temple but Those are still somewhat removed when we compare it to The head over his own body flesh of his very flesh bone of his very bone

This Paul says is the mystery of Christ in his church So the first point is simply that Christ is the head of the body

The second point is this Christ as the head of the body bears all authority

Christ as head of his body bears all authority. He and he alone has supreme authority

Again as a result of the Ascension His name is now exalted. He's been given authority in heaven and on the earth and under the earth

He has all authority everywhere. But in this unique relationship in this unique way

He has authority over his own body. That is the church He alone is the authority of the church

It's like saying the first Adam at creation

God called him to exercise dominion in what he had made and he had authority to exercise that Dominion He was rightly understood a vice -regent on God's own behalf for creation

He was to rule and subsume and bring the glory of God's creation to a fullness

Until the glory of the Lord covers the seas like like the waters That was the

I that was the task for Adam. Well, he had that authority over creation in a unique way

He was the head of his bride Eve That's the same parallel Christ has all authority all

Dominion all power in a unique way He has a relation of authority to his own body.

That is the bride Christ's headship again refers not just to his preeminence, but also to his authority

God put all things under his feet so that he is now head over all things

Ephesians 122 He's the head Colossians 2 10 of all principalities and powers the amazing thing about Christ as the head who bears all authority is he does not use his headship as Tyranny he exercises his power

He uses his authority in a gracious way to save his people again the

Savior of his own body and Strengthen them in their union with him It wasn't just that he gave his life at Golgotha for his bride

He ever lives to intercede he's ever pouring his life into his bride He's ever in this

Union giving forth grace and mercy that renews Joy unspeakable that strengthens peace that settles in calms trust that bears us through valleys he's ever bearing his life upon his bride, so he is the the sacrificial head

That Paul points to in Ephesians 5 and says husbands learn from this follow this you have

Christ as the example This is what a husband is supposed to be Not only do you have his headship exercised in that way

But of course you have his headship mediated through other authorities in the church.

The church is his body He arranges he constructs it as he sees fit and according to his institution

He's designated that the church have offices in fact Ephesians 4 where you're moving toward this idea of Christ's headship he begins with the apostles and the prophets the

Evangelists and the the preachers and the teachers and all these that equip the body for the work of the ministry

And what does that work of the ministry do for building up the body of Christ?

So Christ gives leaders gifts Offices in such a way that the body of Christ will build itself up through the ministry of the word in love

It's building up the body of Christ according to his designated delegated authority

For us now we no longer live in that foundational period where there were still apostles and prophets

Now we of course recognize the the authority the office of elders and deacons

This is part of what Christ has instituted in his church. It's delegated offices Instituted offices to equip the

Saints for the work of the ministry to build up his body So elders and deacons have a unique task elders in a unique way represent

Christ's authority over the church But the key point here is it is always

Christ and only Christ who is governing his church Christ alone bears all authority the sole responsibility of those given charge and Calling to lead or teach or preach or serve the church

Is to actually carry out the word in both declaration and application

So Christ is ruining his church by word and by spirit He Delegates authorities to apply that word to teach that word to make that word known to minister that word to be stewards of that word

But in so doing they are merely extensions of Christ's authority. He alone is the authority of his church

No hireling no usurper. No self -made man has any business in this task of the bride

The evil men working in the vineyard must be cast down Christ alone through his headship even through mediated leadership

Governs his church by word and spirit. What does this mean? Jeff Johnson's very helpful here He says the church does not have permission to create its own objectives

The church does not have permission to carry out its own desires Sometimes I come across these articles where they're talking about what some of the big

Eva churches are up to and Having like Super Mario themed worship services, and I'm just crying into my coffee mug

Why That's not our prerogative Jesus didn't die so that Princess Peach could be in the pulpit

You know The church does not have permission to carry out its own desires to function by its own

Self -made rules the church has no right to bind the conscience of believers by manufactured rules or objectives

This is how we do things. This is what the church needs now in the 21st century. No We simply make known his word his will we declare it we apply it we steward it we serve it

It's Christ's authority over his body Now we do that imperfectly as imperfect men and As as parts of the body and sheep in the fold as well

We're wholly dependent upon him who alone is sufficient and recognizing that we become far more humble far more capable

Because we recognize it's not our working because it's not our ability It's the supernatural authority of Christ having been delegated and confirmed in calling that is administered and working in the body

It's despite those Rather than because of them. It's Christ working in them and through them

So There's no place to Lord it over a flock But rather as servants and as stewards that John Murray the great theologian said elders are not

Lords over God's heritage They themselves are part of the flock in fact, they are themselves of the flock that they are examples to Never a better example as a shepherd than when you're a sheep following the chief shepherd

Elders are members of the body of Christ and subject to the very things which of which they are administrators when you hear of these tragic and catastrophic falls of Good and godly men there was a disconnect at some point somehow.

I thought this gift of gab I thought this way that I had constructed and established my my office or my realm or my

Congregation that that I had padded and built up enough that it just wouldn't apply to me the same way

But there's ever a need to practice what we preach Who is the famous preacher who said he's simply a beggar

Trying to show other beggars where to find bread. That's the right way to view it And so the authority that elders have which is an authority

Paul when he's dealing with a rather fretful young minister in Timothy Appraised him don't let anyone despise you for your youth

Timothy Rather it seek to be an example to them and part of that example is in wisdom and in righteousness and in love be an example but but Timothy exhorts rebuke with all authority

Timothy Don't you recognize you're doing this on behalf of Christ and yet that authority extends only as far as Christ has made his will known

Why because Christ alone is the head of the church Christ alone has all authority over the body

And so shepherds are called to feed the flock of God They can only do that because there is a chief shepherd and overseer over their souls.

Paul says this first in Acts 20 Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the

Holy Spirit has made you Overseers to do what to feed the Church of God. He purchased it with his own blood

What's the whole point there?

It's simply what Jesus did when he reinstated Peter feed my sheep Feed my sheep feed my sheep

Paul says take great care take great caution Don't just look at the flock look at yourselves.

Remember what you've been called to and feed them Why because not only does

Christ have all authority over the body, but Christ Exercises that authority that leading that ruling through word and spirit

For that reason leaders Cannot lord it over the flock. It's a delegated designated authority but it is authority and a body the body of Christ by virtue of that same authority of Christ is called to submit to those who rule over her.

In fact, the writer of Hebrews says When that doesn't happen, it usually ends up going poorly for the one who doesn't want to submit the problem is it's it's all too easy for elders to chafe and just want to pull out the

Submission card You don't have to ask questions and I don't have to labor. I don't have to be long -suffering

I certainly have to be gracious. You just need to submit It's also far too easy for members to say

I Don't have to listen. I don't have to understand. I don't have to Find this passage that calls me to understand something of the delegation of Christ's authority.

I Can figure it out for myself. I have no need of this delegated leadership

Again, both of these are failures to recognize Christ's authority over his body An elder lording over as it were extending beyond the scope of his own ministry because he's going beyond the

Word of God or Unwisely unhelpfully binding members consciences

This is someone who has not rightly understood the authority of Christ over his body. Likewise a member

Who doesn't really care that Christ has designated authorities in the church It doesn't esteem them or look to them as designated

Authorities has also failed to understand the authority of Christ as it is in a marriage. So it is in the church you don't

Encourage a wife to submit to her husband because he's been a perfect man. Otherwise, there would never be any submission whatsoever

What scripture does is it encourages a wife to submit to her husband as unto the Lord? Even that is encourages the husband to love your wives walk in an understanding way with her remember that You're not the king of your castle because your model in paradigm is the one who gave his own life for his bride

Did all that he could to purify her Make her spotless present her glorious to himself

And so we have this in Ephesians 5 22 and following wives submit to your own husbands as to the

Lord for The husband is head of the wife as also

Christ is head of the church. You see what Paul's doing here He's about to reveal this great mystery in verse 25 of Christ's in the church wives submit to your own husbands as to the

Lord Why should a wife do that? How can a wife afford to do that? That doesn't sound very good in the year 2026 does it?

Paul says you don't understand the husband is the head of the wife in This unique one -flesh union

There is a delegated authority that somehow belongs to the headship of Christ even as God the

Father in that state of Humiliation was head over the son. The son is head over the husband and the husband is head over the wife and As the husband is head of the wife.

So also is Christ the head of the church And then he says again, he's the

Savior of the body. What does that headship look like? It's always salvific Redemptive and Paul says in case you're not understanding it.

Let me really spell it out for you Therefore just as the church is subject to Christ So let wise be to their own husbands and then he doesn't stop there.

He says in everything Really drives it home Again in this passage.

What is the wife's primary motive for submitting to her husband's authority? Well, the primary motive is according to Paul he's the head

He is the head What does Paul connect that to in the church be reminded? He is an apostle with apostolic authority

But what does he point it to in Ephesians 5 he says the church ought to submit To Christ simply because he is the head of the body.

He is the head and as the head he bears all authority So the implication is that a wife

Who fails to submit to her husband unto the Lord is only going to cause? Disruption perhaps even dysfunction if not in her marriage than in her family but positively a wife who

Lovingly responds to an imperfect husband in submission will not only honor her husband

But bear up her family in love and unity and do it unto the Lord trusting in him

And what happens when a wife does that in a marriage she becomes a testimony to the world of what

Christ does in a person's heart and how he transforms relationships in 1st

Peter 3 The logic is if if you're a wife in this way Wait till you see what God will do through that, but she's not just teaching the world something in her marriage

She's also demonstrating something to the church God loves images We don't just gather here on Sunday So that the men can talk

We gather in worship because God uses these images to reinforce spiritual realities.

What are we when we are gathered? We are the body of Christ Gathering in his very presence to worship him

We pray in spirit and in truth to receive from him his own word and pray that that word is implanted

Effectively in us by his spirit and what is that supposed to look like the head? Speaking his word to his bride washing her with the water of his word

Effectively transforming her from one degree of glory to the next that's what takes place when we come as a bride

How does that get reinforced? Well, we all have our role to play for the men to speak the word whether that's done by leading worship

Or leading times of prayer and confession unto God or or preaching or sharing questions and discussions and Applications during interaction time that is a

Microcosmic picture of the head who is the husband ministering to the body, which is the wife

Just as Christ as the head as the husband is ministering to the body, which is his bride So that's one picture going on when the men are actively worshiping in this way.

What about the women? What are they doing on a Sunday when we gather in worship? They too are actively worshiping

God, how are they doing that? They are a picture to every single person in this room that when we gather in the presence of Christ We are to revere him and submit to him because he is the head of the body

So my active worship my role to reinforce is to minister the word as a microcosmic picture of Christ ministering to his bride and And if you're a woman here this morning your microcosmic picture is

To receive that word and seek to honor and submit to that word Unto the Lord unto

Christ as a reminder to me to everyone in this room. That's what I'm supposed to do Because I'm part of the bride

That's active worship men and women Together as a body in Christ showing forth this dynamic

Christ Ministering to his bride the bride submitting to and seeking to honor the headship of her husband

That's what's taking place every Sunday. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah Spurgeon asset in this way

Does not this make each of you ask if the entire church is to yield obedience to Christ in this way

Am I yielding obedience? Am I submitting to him who is my head

Am I honoring and bearing out the respect of a changed life to my husband?

Who is Christ the head of the body? See, it's it's never just about your marriage or your family

It's always about Christ and his gospel It's this transformative display that really is salt and light to a dark and depraved world

And maybe this is really hard Spurgeon just presses it Do you do you bring the difficult aspects of this to the word?

Is this what's really there in Ephesians 5? Well, maybe it goes against your opinion

Well, do you ever spend even a quarter of an hour weighing out that opinion against his word? This is Spurgeon again

If I'm a Christian am I in the habit of judging what I ought to do by my own whims and wishes? I don't like that seems unnecessary.

I don't really like that Do I judge what I ought to do by my own whims and wishes or do

I judge it by the book of him who is the head? Many say they do not like this and they do not like that as if that has anything to do with it

Who cares about your likes and your dislikes you are a servant and bound to give your will to the king If Christ gives a command

Would you imagine to be hard because it does not chime in with your current love of ease my brother my sister

Will you not as a servant of the king put all your whims and likes aside and endeavor to follow him?

That is a blessed life to lead to no longer be a servant to the world or to the flesh or to the evil one

But to go to Christ and say what I lack and what I do not know teach me and grant me the grace to complete

That's Christ as the head bearing all authority So much more to say on that point

But I think we're just gonna move on from that and come to the third point Which is a little bit longer

Christ as Our head is all of our unity It's all of our unity

So Christ is the head of his own body It's the first point secondly Christ as the head of the body bears all authority and thirdly

Christ as the head of the body is all of our unity as a body He is the source and center of all corporate life.

There is no corporate life Unless it's flowing out of him who is the head unless it's knit together and joined up in him

Who is the source of its very being? Everything that is in the body derives its life and being from the head who is

Christ Now Christ exercises his power his authority as we said for the good of his own body.

He cherishes his own flesh Paul uses that as an example. No man ever hated his own flesh.

He cherishes it. He honors it That's how you have to regard your marriage. It's part of you Part of your identity now, you're no longer two

But the two have become one in that way Paul says again, this is all about Christ in the church

You have no separate life apart from him All the energy all the power have their place within the vine and we are just the branches

Branches don't exist without the vine Everything comes from him the whole life of the body and every part of it comes from him who is the head

What does John say in John 1 16 of his fullness? We have all received grace after grace out of his fullness everything flows his fullness

He fills the body with his life all of his attributes all of his powers all of his graces all of that Washing over the body wave after wave degree by degree

Season by season the body is Christ in Christ is the body And so we depend on him in this way

We can't manufacture our unity We can't manufacture our transformation

We can't manufacture obedience to his will We can't manufacture sanctification.

We can't manufacture pure worship. I Can do the I can't do the least thing

To melt the least fiber of my heart. I'm wholly dependent upon him wholly dependent upon him.

Who's the head? Jesus wasn't exaggerating when he said apart from me you can do nothing

How often do we in our own separate lives as Christians? How often do we corporately as a body carry on as if we can do most things apart from him?

This is again not recognizing. He is the head of the body as such all of our unity is bound up in him

Consider his ability He gives us life, but more than that he gives us strength.

He gives us health Paul puts it this way in Ephesians 3 that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be

Strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man What do you need to be strong?

You need him who is the head to strengthen you to be strong? Colossians 1 he says it in a similar way strengthened with all might how how does that come about?

more book studies We're now on the 11th. Are you 11 for 11 in your daily devotionals?

Is that where you're going to be strengthened? Well, certainly God uses means but you're missing the point Strengthened with all might how according to his glorious power

That's how It's him who is the head it's his strength his power much more his patience his long -suffering his joy

Paul in that very letter in Colossians has one of the most difficult passages to understand a phrase

Where he says in his ministry, he's filling up the afflictions that are lacking in the body of Christ I don't

I'm like what are you even getting at there Paul? You're filling up the afflictions that are lacking in the body of Christ Paul can't even understand his experience of suffering without recognizing something of the presence and purpose and power of Christ in the midst of it

Again, how radical is that union? I am in him Paul says to such a degree.

It's no longer I who live It's Christ living in me. I'm so a part of his body that whoever

Paul was before that. He's long been since dead I wasn't just created anew. I was united to him now.

I'm a part of him. His life is my life the church again, do we just Do we dwell deeply enough these these are not dispensable little illustrations

This is a spiritual reality The church is his body

We are so dull to even begin to comprehend that these relationships that exist by faith through grace

Comprise his body on earth. Oh, that's a nice illustration.

No, no, no. No, it's not an illustration flesh of his flesh bone of his bone one with him one with the one whose fullness

Fills all there's a sense in which as the church we are his fullness

Spurgeon in a sermon on Colossians 1 he makes this point that it's not just that without the head the body is lifeless

He says also Without the body the head is lifeless To put it this way, of course is speaking in terms of Christ's incarnation

Christ's humiliation the divine Son needs nothing But in ordaining and in purposing to take on flesh and bear his life for our salvation

He so binds himself to us that His life is as much dependent upon our life as our life is dependent upon his he really has joined himself to us in that way

Amazing that I was united to him in this plan of redemption from eternity

That he designated his life as the

God -man to be inseparable from mine unto everlasting We just don't even begin to understand

The profundity of union with Jesus Christ our Savior. This is why

Paul he can't even Explicate it. He simply says Brethren, I can only tell you

I'm speaking a mystery If you understand Genesis 2 rightly, you'll know it's about Christ in the church

That's basically an invitation to say Think deeply so deep that theologians can't go as far as poets and artists can go

It's usually a sign you're in the real depths of a thought we are

His fullness to put it in another way.

What's a bridegroom without a bride? What's a sacrifice without a reward

What's a king without a kingdom we are vital to Christ because we are his body

I hope you can immediately see how that undergirds the doctrine of perseverance of the

Saints That he will never

No, never No, never forsake Those that are part of his own flesh and blood.

Of course. This was a mystery that had to be revealed This was not something we find easily across the pages of the

Old Testament We know of course that believers of every age have been united to Christ by his spirit

There is no other way to be saved but be saved by grace and grace is a gift from God through Christ Accomplished applied by the

Spirit and so it's only as a result of Christ Completed work in the fullness of time that redemption is applied to anyone whether past present or yet to come

All those who belong to Christ have been baptized into Christ by one spirit

That's the point that Paul made earlier in 1st Corinthians 12 and all those who have been baptized into Christ as many as put on Christ have

Christ as Their head and they're a part of his own body. They're part of his bride

This is the mystery that was hidden until it was revealed in the fullness of time. Listen to how Paul puts it

This is in Ephesians 3 The mystery of Christ he calls it

Which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men but it's now revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the

Spirit that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and Partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel now, we just breeze right past that but slow down The mystery of Christ revealed now in the fullness of time

That not just those that had been called and given all of those precious promises and the covenants

But now even those afar of many tribes and tongues being brought to be the body of Christ or in another place to make in himself

Out of the two one new man

So making peace that he might reconcile them both that is both Jew and Gentile in one body

By the blood of the cross. That's the mystery the body of Christ How does that unity come about Christ is now ascended.

He's at the right hand of God What does it mean for us to be the body of Christ knowing that in his human flesh?

That's where he is The angel said at the empty tomb. Why do you stand staring up at the sky the same way you saw him go?

You'll see him return They saw him ascend bodily He'll return bodily, so how is it that we are

Mystically a part of his body now and where does our unity come from if he's ascended at the right hand of the father?

Well, it's simply by his Holy Spirit because it wasn't just that Christ ascended but what? the spirit descended

That the bride is a Pentecostal bride The spirit gathers and garners as it pulls together

Men from every nation and tribe into the bride of the Son it's the spirit that both creates this saving faith through regeneration and then

Reconstitutes the adoption that brings about the unity of the body of Christ Listen to how

Martin Lloyd -Jones puts this It is his spirit that makes the unity the common life the energy that makes us all one in him

It is this essential living quality in our own bodies Think of our nervous system and the blood that flows through the whole human body

That's what accounts for the unity of the body precisely the same principle obtains in the life of the Christian Church Yeah, we're many members many backgrounds different gifts different capacities different breaths and lengths different stages of sanctification

Some right now this morning on hilltops some in valleys So how do these members that are so disparate?

Become unified it's through the nervous system and the blood as it were It's through the

Holy Spirit effectively working in and through us all binding us one to another The only unity that can be wrought in the body of Christ is a unity that is wrought by the

Spirit of God That's why Paul commands that we pursue or we endeavor to keep

The unity and the bond of peace and what is that unity?

It's a unity of the Holy Spirit This unity comes from the

Spirit the Spirit of Christ. It's sustained. It's maintained by the Spirit So by the

Spirit's operation we are the presence of Christ on the earth We are truly his body flesh of his flesh bone of his bone.

Let me put it to you in this way What is true of Christ is also true of us? What I mean by that is this when he was crucified

We were crucified When he died for sin, we died to sin

When he burst through the grave we rose in his newness of life I'm simply saying

Romans 6 in paraphrase That's how radical this union is with Christ. What happened to him happened to us

Augustine every now and then in his passages. He has these little provocative statements On the one hand he could say if he said this to a church he was preaching to He said brethren

If the risen Lord Jesus came and stood in the back of the room this very morning it would mean nothing to you

It only means something to you by faith in who he is and what he's done To see the person of Jesus means nothing without faith

It's a very provocative statement. Some people think if I could just see him then I would believe no, no

You must believe that he is the Son of God That his death is effective unto salvation

And if that's the belief that makes the difference then you don't need to see him not yet You can afford to walk by faith and not by sight.

Well, here's another rather Jarring statement of Augustine and he's driving this point home. He says brethren.

Let us rejoice Let us give thanks that we are made not only Christians but Christ Don't you understand brothers?

Can you apprehend this grace of God on us marvel at this be glad you and I have been made

Christ Because if he is the head and we are the members the whole man is he and we head and members

What is that? It's Christ in the church Now that's meant to be provocative and jarring.

I almost want to let it stand But I have to qualify it lest it gets sound bit and then

I get bit as a result of that He's not saying that somehow the church is Continuing on the incarnation of Christ It's more what

Lewis was getting at which I mentioned last week that the whole point of the father sending the son was to make

His people into little Christ's that's the idea It's not that the incarnation of Christ gets extended and somehow the objective accomplishment of his redemption then becomes subjective and and Temporally progressive that's not the idea at all.

Of course, Augustine would not mean to say the church is the Son of God Or that the church somehow rose in a human body and ascended in a human body into heaven.

That's what Christ has done. I Think what he's getting at is simply this You Begin with this radical union of our human nature and it ends with a subsumed identity in his very person

Spurgeon puts it this way. He says there's a union of nature He says listen, I don't want to attempt to describe the chemical composition of human flesh

But it's quite clear. Whatever my members are made out of my head is made out of There's really no difference between the flesh of the one and the flesh of the other

Well, this is what it's like with our covenant head who is now in heaven Though he's in heaven and his feet are in us here on the earth yet.

Christ is still one in nature with his people Because he's very man a very man as much as he is very

God a very God And let me say if you deny his humanity, it won't be long before you also deny his divinity

And if you deny his divinity, you've destroyed all that is perfect about his humanity. He is the

God man That's who we love and adore his nature as a human is our nature as humans

And it's in that humanity that we are joined to him forever What does this mean?

This is again why we need to reflect deeply on words that we so easily move past. Oh, yeah

Christ is the head of the body keep moving. Oh We are members of him Joins to and knit together with him.

Oh, yeah. No, I've heard that before. Oh, no slow down If you understand what's being said think of how that shapes every encounter in your life

If the Lord Jesus Christ is the head of the body of which

I am a part if I am a bride In a one -flesh union with the risen Lord Jesus Then whatever difficulties and sorrows

I face in this life Whenever I feel assaulted by Satan it seems as though it's impossible to prevail or it seems like I can't keep going the way that I've been going because I'm so weak

And the difficulty is so baffling I remind myself this simple truth with all of the hidden depths behind it.

I am weak Wholly insignificant a small cog Unable to change or control anything in my life

But I'm a member of the body of Jesus Christ. I am in him and he is in me and Therefore whatever may be true of me at this time in the season in this passing vapor

The life of the head is upholding me. The life of the head is sustaining me

I am in him and will never be taken from him. You start to recognize

How the gospel begins to sew itself into your life The gospel is not something abstract a story that doesn't bear any reality into your life

Some truth that you have to put in neat little systematic categories It's something that's more like a game of chess rather than a lived reality.

That's not what we're talking about What is the spirit wrought unity actually look like it looks like the truths of the gospel not only being celebrated

Not only being heralded but being lived out clung to depended on repeated washed over prayed praised

It's a constant awareness of the need we have for the ongoing life of the one who gave his life and died and was buried and rose and ascended at work now effectively in me and if it's abstract,

I'm not understanding who I am in him If it's abstract, I don't understand who you are in relation to me because of him and who

I am to you in relation Because of him. It's not just that Christ is in me.

It's that Christ is in us It's that we are in him when he was crucified We were crucified and so that risen power now is at work even and it rose him from the grave

And Paul says this and he says it with the plural in a way that only the Southerners catch a y 'all or an all y 'all

He says if y 'all then be risen with Christ if you all be risen with Christ Set your affection on things above not on the things of the earth

Another all y 'all statement in Romans 6 11 Reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God How can you do that?

What does Romans 6 11 even look like? Am I supposed to just pretend that I'm somehow dying to sin and I'm alive to God, you know

Just think this way name it claim it just believe it if you keep repeating it, maybe it'll come true. That's not what

Paul's saying He says you want to know why you can reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to God Because you're in Christ who died for sin and lives ever at the right hand of the

Father to intercede for you You really can reckon yourself dead to sin Sin no longer will have dominion over your life

Because you're part of who he is now and he's part of who you are And so we come to a conclusion.

I just want to keep developing out this point What does it mean to be a whole body it means nothing if we don't begin with him who is our head

There's no chance No Hope not even the faintest daydream that we could ever be a whole body if we don't rightly

Understand what it means for Christ to be the head Why does Paul keep showering these truths in all of his letters?

Why does he keep taking this ragtag group of sinners and back biters and he points them to the one who is preeminent overall?

He points marriages and husbands and wives and children and slaves and he says well you just look at Christ Look at who he is.

Look at how he is. Look at what he is to you Even now look at what his work is. Look at how you're vitally connected to him

Do you find yourself in him? Do you see his power at work in your life? well, if if Christ is your head and You are a member of his body then you'll know these things you'll see these things you'll find these things by faith and repentance

These gospel truths will not get so old and dull. They'll be ever true ever fresh Your heart will be tell me the old old story

Words that you've heard a thousand times hitting you differently on the thousand and first time if Christ is your head

You'll you'll have this corresponding relationship to him Remember seeing this rather grotesque video of some man.

I don't know if he was in the South Pacific somewhere maybe in India But he had some Guinness World Record and I don't know if it was a religious act or what?

In like the late 70s. He raised his hand and then he never put it back down Day after day week after week month after month year after year decade after decade.

His hand was in the air and he had built a sort of brace and so on and all the Villagers and photographers would come and this man had become somewhat of a spectacle.

The problem was All the blood was drained down from his arm And so it was just slowly corroding and wasting away through all of these years and he had what looked like a shriveled bone

Yet effectively lost all the power all the ability all the use of his arm. He just had this grotesque stump

When you when you view your Christian life Like this man treated his arm

No, it's okay. I can just be static I can just kind of keep hanging out here and brace myself in this way and I can hold that out for 30 years

There's no power. There's no life. There's no growth. There's no beauty.

There's nothing good There's no strength. There's no joy. There's no piece. There's just rot and waste and disease What what did that man need to do?

He needed to get that arm moving and flowing and cooperating with the other parts of the body so that the very source of life and blood and nerves and oxygen could all

Strengthen and grow and he could grow with the body as the body was also causing him to grow And that's the whole idea is we all grow up into him

Who is our head the way the truth the life of the body We in other words, we cannot be a true member of the body of Christ If we're not receiving some vital influence from him who was our head

I need the influence of Christ more than I need any of you You need the influence of Christ far more than you need me

Christ alone is the head of his body. He alone is the life of his bride He alone is the source and wellspring of life and life everlasting

Whoever eats of his flesh will live forever who drinks of his living waters will never perish but have eternal life

Christ is everything Christ is all for the body of Christ So we dare not treat each other like arms that can be braced or limbs that don't have to move

Things that can be amputated dissected or kept apart. We have to grow together

But not even horizontally grow together vertically into him who is the head

This means it's not enough just to Show up externally to things

It's not enough to be the visible part of his body You might be a piercing or an adornment or a decoration but not be something vitally connected to the body of Christ There's an influence a relationship a source

Christ is the head This is what it means for him to be the head of the body It means he himself is our peace where's peace gonna come from in a little congregation

Where did it come from for the Jews and the Gentiles how were they made? To be at peace one with another in the body of Christ Christ himself is our peace.

That's what Paul says in Ephesians 2 Or in Colossians 3 he says he's our life Colossians 1 he says he's our hope of glory in 1st

Corinthians 1. He says God made him to be unto us wisdom Righteousness sanctification redemption

We're made partakers of him Hebrews 3 14 says do you see everything flows from him?

It all returns to him. You cannot grow if you're not growing from him unto him. Let me close with with two points

The first point is this May the husbands and wives in our midst demonstrate to us

What it means to be Christ in the bride, that's the first point Husbands have a unique role to present the self sacrificial love of the

Savior who gives himself for the good of his body Wives have a unique calling and responsibility to demonstrate and teach everyone in the body

What it looks like to receive from him and follow him. This is the word of the

Lord as hard as it is I do it unto him. I follow him. I seek him. I honor him. I serve him

We all need to show each other these things grow in these things

So the first thing is we need to recognize who it is That we're submitting to who it is that we're following who it is

That is the head of us all Christ is the head of every man Listen to what

Paul says in Ephesians 5 28 Husbands ought to love their own wives like their own bodies

Whoever loves his wife loves himself Christ's love for you is his love for himself

Because you're a part of who he is You're a part of his body. No one has ever hated his own flesh, but he nourishes it

He cherishes it Just like the Lord does for the church why

Because we're members of his body of his flesh of his bone Do you know that Christ is nourishing you this morning believer, do you know that Christ is cherishing you

Believer is that not stunning to you He cherishes you as he does his own flesh because you are his flesh

What does this mean? If he's my head who nourishes and cherishes me

Who knows all of my weaknesses infirmities sees all of my blemishes and wrinkles and just faithfully self -sacrificially with renewed mercy washes me or and or Because he's not a husband nor a high priest that's not touched with my infirmity.

He knows in every point how I'm tempted yet without sin. I Have one who's perfectly sympathetic to me why?

Because he cherishes me. Is that not stunning to you?

What does that mean for us? We should be devoted to him. We should be devoted to him.

We should be devoted to our head because Our head devoted himself to the body

It struck me when we were at prayer we sang a hymn from Isaac Watson again, it's one of these things I've sung it a thousand times.

It just hit me a little different on Thursday night I'm a big fan of well -chosen words, and this was a well -chosen word

Alas, did my Savior bleed? Did my sovereign die? Would he?

He doesn't say allow Would he and he doesn't say give

Would he devote that sacred head For sinners such as I he devoted himself.

What a picture For the body of Christ to return to him that kind of devotion

Think of all that belongs to us because of him in light of this What did he devote to us being brought into union with him

All that he has with his father is now ours All of it. This is a point that Richard Sibbes makes and I'm I'll close with this and then

Ephesians Appearance in Richard Sibbes. He's saying he's asking a question.

Does God delight in Christ? That is in his person or in his mystical body.

That is us Does God delight in Christ in terms of his person? You know the Christ up there at his right hand or does he delight in us the mystical body?

Sibbes says both God loves and delights in Christ mystically that is

Christ and his members because that's the whole Christ When he says this is my beloved

Son in whom I am well pleased He's not speaking alone to himself, but also to those are who are in him

Body and soul because he's the head of the body and so he's well pleased as he's pleased with him

So he's pleased with those who are in him. God delights in him in all that is in him Is it possible that he would delight in the head and then refuse the members?

No He delights in Christ and all that belongs to him. He delights with the same delight

There's of course a difference in degree because Christ in all things must have the preeminence Colossians 118, but it's still the same love

Therefore our Savior sets it down excellently in this prayer of John 17 He prays that the same love he has with the

Father would be with us this now is our comfort and our confidence

God accepts us because he accepts his beloved and Only if he were to cease loving

Christ could he cease to love the body of Christ? This is our comfort when we're feeling dejected for sin.

We are sinners indeed But Christ is the chosen one of God in whom he delights and he delights in us in him

No matter what we are in ourselves It's what we are in Christ that God looks upon and delights in a

Love that is inseparable from the love he has for his own son Because we are in his own son love so amazing so divine

Demands my love my life my all This is the starting and ending of everything

Christ having the preeminence Christ's the head of this body That we may grow up in all things into him who is the head

Christ from whom the whole body joined Knit together by what every joint supplies according to that effective working by which every part does its share

Causes the growth of the body the building up of itself in love. Let's pray father.

Thank you for your word Build us up Lord in this.

Holy faith build us up in this affection for our Savior Lord Build us up in devotion to him.

May we ponder deeply? These things that are so easily abstracted so easily treated as threadbare illustrations not

Not not seen for all of their glory All of their beauty all of their wonder

Lord for us to marvel That we are in Union with the

Savior That we are one with our Redeemer That we have been

Inseparably bound to the one who gave his own blood to purchase us Father, let us just cover our mouths and wonder and then open them in praise

Lord build us up in these things. We pray that you would pour out your spirit Humble us and melt our hearts

Lord. May we be built up Edified in love because of him who first loved us

May it be a devotion a return of love to him who first devoted himself to us What wondrous love

Lord may we walk worthy of this calling worthy of this love at least worthy enough?

To gain the crowns that will cast before his nail pierced feet in whose name we pray