What I Would Do Differently
D. We follow Christ with OTHER members of the local church
• Hebrews 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
• Matthew 18:20 For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.
*Transition/humor:
3 The Baptist Faith and Message 2000, https://bfm.sbc.net/bfm2000/ accessed September 2, 2020.
1. Avoid riding in automobiles because they are responsible for 20 percent of all fatal accidents.
2. Do not stay home because 17 percent of all accidents occur in the home.
3. Avoid walking on streets or sidewalks because 14 percent of all accidents occur to pedestrians.
4. Avoid traveling by air, rail, or water because 16 percent of all accidents involve these forms of transportation.
5. Of the remaining 33 percent, 32 percent of all deaths occur in hospitals. Above all else, avoid hospitals
You will be pleased to learn that only .001 percent of all deaths occur in worship services in church, and these are usually related to previous physical disorders. Therefore,
logic tells us that the safest place for you to be at any given point in time is at church! Bible study is safe, too.
The percentage of deaths during Bible study is even less.
For safety sake, attend church and read your Bible…it could save your life.4
“Many of us church members have lost the biblical understanding of what it means to be part of the Body of Christ.”5
4 Mark Moring, “Elorne, Illinois,” Illustration submission to
preachingtoday.com, a service of Christianity Today, accessed by subscription, June 12, 2001.
5 Thom S. Rainer, I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude That Makes the Difference (Nashville: B & H, 2013), 5, Kindle.
The _______ of the Church
More than an organization – it is an ORGANISM!
1. The LIFE of the Church A. The Church is the
BODY of Christ
• 1 Corinthians 12:27 Now you are the body of
Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
• Romans 12:5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
B. CHRIST is the Head of the Body
• Ephesians 4:15 speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.
• Ephesians 5:23 Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.
C. The Church Lives Because CHRIST Lives
• 1 Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive
• Acts 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being
• Romans 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus
• Ephesians 2:1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins
• Colossians 2:13 When you were dead in your sins and in the
uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ.
He forgave us all our sins
D. Christ Lives through the Church by His _HOLY SPIRIT_
• The POWER of Pentecost – The Person of God the Holy Spirit
• Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my
witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
• Romans 8:9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
• 1 John 3:24 Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
• 1 Corinthians 3:16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit
lives in you?
• Philippians 2:13 it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
E. Christ is known by the LOVE of the Church
• John 13:34-35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must
love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
• John 15:12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
• 1 Thessalonians 4:9 Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.
• 1 Peter 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.
• 1 John 3:11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
• 1 John 4:7-11 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He
• Ephesians 4:15-16 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into 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.
The ___ of the Church
And He [Jesus] 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)
The Description of Leaders
1 Peter 5:1-2 To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be
revealed: Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as
The MATURITY of the Elder
(GK.) πρεσβύτερος6 – Acts 11:30 is the first use of the term for Christian preachers7 And in Acts 20:17 he uses this term for the leaders of the
Ephesian church. This word is used to denote age, rank or responsibility. The elder is mature in spiritual experience and understanding.
2. The Care of the SHEPHERD (Pastor)
Ephesians 4:11-13 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be