The body of Christ

'He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.' (Ephesians 4v11-16)

Jesus is the chief shepherd. His role is the protect the flock (his people). He does this by putting leaders in charge- apostles, elders, shepherds and teachers (we are ALL teachers btw). The role of leaders is 2 things: 

Feed the sheep- they do this by leading the flock into the word of God for them to feed on.

Protect the sheep- they do this by fighting off wolves who will come in with false teaching. 

There role is to feed us and to protect us while we eat.

'I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, BE ALERT, remembering that for 3 years I did not cease night and day to ADMONISH EVERYONE with tears.' 

Admonish- Literally means to put somebody else's mind in order. We do this by replacing lies with truth. We preach the gospel to them night and day, bringing about a change in their thinking. WE TELL THEM THE TRUTH!!

This isn't just truth about who God is- how God is good and they are bad. It is truth about their identity- 'to equip the SAINTS' If you are in Christ you are a saint not just a sinner!!! For soooo long I was told you're a sinner, you're a sinner, you're a sinner. But Paul says I'm a saint! I'm a sinner SAVED by grace. Because Jesus paid my debt, I have been adopted into the family of God. God doesn't look at me and think I'm not good enough, he knows I'm not good enough, so he sent Jesus to make me good enough. What I could never have earned has been freely given to me- an inheritance, because of Jesus. Know who your identity is in!!

So what's this passage saying? 

God put leaders in charge of his flock to protect and to feed it, ensuring it grows. They teach us the truth about God and about who we are in God. 

So what do we do? THE SAME!

'Equip the SAINTS for the work of ministry...' 

What is our ministry?

'...building up the body of Christ.'

A few months ago how I view God and myself changed completely because someone was obedient enough to tell me the truth about my identity. Our role is to do the same. 

Are you being invested in by someone? And are you in turn investing in someone else? If not you're not following the biblical model of how the body should work.

So why do we tell people the truth? To bring them to 'mature manhood'. Our aim is to present people MATURE in Christ. 

The bible defines immaturity as 'tossed to and fro by the waves' (unstable, insecure, not holding firm to christ during trouble) and 'carried by every wind of doctrine' (susceptible to believing lies because they aren't confident in fully knowing the truth).

How we disciple- We admonish, and we 'speak the truth IN LOVE!'

So the shepherd appoints leaders, the leaders teach me the truth, then I teach the truth to someone else, who in turn teaches the truth to another etc etc. This is the way that the body 'grows up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ'

BUT only when EACH part is working properly does the body 'grow so it builds itself up in love'.

If you are part of the body, then you have a role in building it up.

Dai spoke last wk on how we are DISCIPLE-MAKING DISCIPLES. I stole this phrase because it's so true. Jesus didn't just say go and tell people the gospel he said 'go and make disciples'. This requires A LOT of investment in people.

God has put this on my heart massively so I have to rant about it. Don't just lead someone into truth and neglect the wolves bit. PROTECT THE FLOCK THAT GOD HAS PUT YOU IN CHARGE OF. Don't allow people in who are damaging to the flock because you want numbers or you don't wana appear extreme or whatever. If someone is potentially dangerous for your flock, keep them away from it!! Let us be mindful daily, that one day we all have to stand before God and give an account of what we did with what he entrusted to us.

We ALL have a responsibility for how effectively the body is working. Lets make sure we do our part, building somebody up so that they can do the same.

Without God, without anything

Over the years God has been slowly revealing to me the full picture of the cross.

First he showed me the physical suffering that christ endured for my sake.
Then he had me on my knees balling my eyes out one night when he revealed the emotional suffering. This picture of Jesus in the garden knowing he would be crucified and in so much anguish that he sweat drops of blood. Only during extreme fear and dread can the capilleries of the sweat glands burst, mixing with blood. This is so rare because the amount of emotional torment that must be felt for this to occur is so vast that the majority of us will never know it. That verse that says the disciples were grieved when they seen the sheer state that Jesus was in hit me like a ton of bricks. I so often think of Jesus wholly as God, and although he was, he was also man. He didn't face that cross without fear, words cannot describe the agony he felt knowing what lay before him. Such fear that would cause God, the creator of everything, to say,

"My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death...Father, please take this cup of suffering away from me." (Mark 14)

But for so long I have failed to truly grasp the full extent of what the cross actually means. The truth is that the cross is not just about physical and emotional pain. There is something that Jesus experienced on that cross that only by the grace of God, I will not have to endure. He felt complete separation from God.

"My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" (Mark 15v34)

My friend Beki said something to me this week that has completely stuck with me. In that moment when Jesus was separated from God there was nothingness. He couldn't see, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't live, because the life that comes from God had left him. Our culture has belittled the true terror of hell. The amount of people that joke that they want to go to hell because it's warmer or there's parties there, when in actual fact the bible describes hell as total separation from God...forever. If God is life, then without God is death. If God is light, then without God is darkness. If God is love, joy, grace and mercy, then without God is hate, pain, sorrow and condemnation. If God is freedom, then without God is bondage, slavery, shame, doubt and fear. If God is everything, then without God is nothing.

Everything that we are, that we see or do, is God. For so long I have been praying for the unsaved people I know that God would be with them, that he would be their God, but he is! Everyday that they live, breathe, see, move, everything they do, is God in them. In Pontypridd where my friend Lois lives, there's this monument and all the way around it are the words written,

"Without God, without anything."

My heart has been completely broken for the people in Trevethin. The amount of physical and sexual abuse and neglect going on here is unbelievable. My heart has been so hardened towards these things and it has been so easy to just be blind to it because that's more comfortable, but I feel like God has completely shattered me over it. I feel like I'm grieving for the suffering that these people are going through, but the truth is that although it seems that they are without God, God is with them. Their very existence reveals the power of Christ in them. The suffering in this world is nothing compared with the suffering of being forever separated from God. I can't imagine calling out to God for all eternity and there being...nothing. This is what Jesus experienced so that we wouldn't have to: Without god, without anything. I have never felt such a call to get off my ass and tell people the gospel. How can we claim to love if we don't warn.

Trials

How often do we pretend to truly believe the word of God?
My mouth says God is good, God is loving, but do I believe it?
The truth is we have become so indoctrinated to believe that these thoughts are wrong, that to doubt God is sinful. So instead of crying out WHY,

Why if you are so good is there so much pain?
Why him?
Why her?
Why me?

We remain silent.
But tell me where it says in the bible that to doubt is wrong.
I believe the first step in dealing with pain and suffering is to cry out why.
Did not even Jesus cry out on the cross,

"My God WHY have you forsaken me?"

FAITH

For the past 6 weeks God has been challenging me with this thought, what idols are you placing before me? Not a single day goes by when God does not show me the things in my life that I place above him, things I never even realised we're idols.
When we first moved to Wales I didn't understand why God was taking so many things away from me that I felt I needed. I realised that I needed to realise my need for them to understand that they we're idols. Money, comfort, friends, family, luxury, gossip, the list is endless.
Money for me has been an idol forever. There was no doubt then that once God had revealed this, he would test me,

Do you really trust my provision??

What I love about God is that our faithlessness does not render him faithless. He is faithful to fulfil his promises. God promised provision so God WILL provide despite my doubts and tantrums. A few weeks ago I was really struggling to sacrifice this idol and trust him. Cue the many tears and dramatics. Went for a walk and when I came home there was an envelope of money on my doorstep. A few days later I got a call saying someone felt led to buy food for us, I'm talking a full weekly big shop, flippin beaut. So everyday he puts me to the test, but whether I fail or succeed, he remains faithful to his promise. I will provide. Will you trust me?

This week God has been teaching me a lot about faith. The entire story of the bible is about a faithless people redeemed by a faithful God. Adam and Eve KNEW God, they walked with God and shared an intimacy with him that we will not experience until we meet him face to face. But they were unfaithful, they traded the truth for a lie and worshipped created things rather than the creator. Faithless.
Therefore God called Abraham to be the Father of a nation that would KNOW God. God promised that at 90 years old Sarah would have a child. Sarah's response? She laughed (Genesis 18v15). Sarah and Abraham doubted God to the point that Abraham had a child with another women believing that in his human ability he had the power to fulfil the promise of God. Faithlessness. God continued this promise through barren women- Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah. This stands as an illustration that God's promises can NEVER be achieved by our ability, but through HIS power. The power that allows 90 year old women, barren women, and then a virgin to have a child. It is God who fulfils the promise.

"By FAITH abraham, even though he was past age- and Sarah herself was barren- was enabled to become a father BECAUSE HE CONSIDERED HIM FAITHFUL WHO HAD MADE THE PROMISE." (Hebrews 11v11)

So back to the story. God promises that all nations will be blessed through Abraham and although God delivers this people from slavery, parts an ocean for them, feeds them from heaven, appears to them as fire on a mountain, and even through they hear his very voice, they decide instead that it makes sense to worship a statue of an animal they made with their own hands. Faithlessness. It is so easy to read this and get frustrated at these people, but these people are us. Every day we chose to worship created things rather than the creator. Their faithlessness is our faithlessness.

"My beloved had a vineyard on a rich and fertile hill. He plowed the land, cleared the stones and planted the best vines. Then he waited for a harvest of sweet grapes, but the grapes were bitter. What more could I have done for my vineyard that I had not already done? Now let me tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will tear down its hedges and let it be destroyed...The nation of Israel is the vineyard. He expected a crop of justice but instead found oppression. He expected to find righteousness but instead heard cries of violence. (Isaiah 5v1-8)

Here Israel is the vine, we are the vine. But we are incapable of faithfulness. So what can we do it be reconciled to God?

Jesus says, "I am the TRUE VINE." (John 15v1)

The only one that has ever been faithful to the very end, to death, is Jesus. By trusting in Jesus, his faithfulness becomes ours. We are no longer that unfaithful wife but his faithful bride. Jesus' close relationship with sinners is a picture of the reconciliation, the restoration of an intimate relationship between a faithless nation and a faithful God.

The true and final fulfilment of the promise God made to Abraham is fulfilled through Christ. The promise of a land filled with rest and hope, a place without pain and suffering, a place where we truly know God. Is this not the picture painted in Revelation?

"Look God's home is now among HIS people! He will live with them, and they will be HIS people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever." (Rev21v3-5)

Forever young

Why do we focus so often on things of the world?
The reason that so many Christians have lost hope is because we have lost sight of the end goal- heaven. Our reward. Our only hope.
For the past few weeks my mind has been plagued with worldy thoughts. What if we can't pay our rent? What will I do for a job? How will we survive without money? But last night God showed me heaven. Suddenly my landlord didn't seem so big. My worries started to fade away as I realised that this world is nothing but a flicker. What we see today, will be gone tomorrow.
Everything that I have is not my own, it is on loan. My house is not my own. My money is not my own. My marriage is not my own. My future is not my own. Everything that I have is his.
My desires must become his desires. My wants must become his wants. My life must become his life.
My success is not measured by what house I own, what career I have, what car I drive, what clothes I wear, how thin I look.
My purpose is simply this- To glorify God.
I didn't go to uni so that I'd become some career driven fool whose purpose is to earn as much money to buy all the things that the world tells me are important. My purpose in going to uni was this- to glorify God. To have the opportunity to proclaim the gospel.
The purpose of everything I have done and everything I will do is this- to glorify God.
My life is not my own.
I must be willing to lose it all for the sake of the Kingdom.
The call from God is the call to die- physically or daily to self, in order that we might live.
Our thoughts for this world must die. Our worldy desires and wants must die. They must be crucified with Christ if we are to truly live.
If I lose everything in this world I haven't actually lost anything. Even if I lose my very life, I still win.

"So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever." 2Cor 4v18

My biggest fear in this life is being an adult. Things are so much more complicated, difficult, wearisome, troubling, tiring...the list is endless. When we get older are passion starts to fade, life diminishes this, along with our innocence and excitement. So I cling to this hope that in heaven all things are made new.

"Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say "Do it again!", and the grown up does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-ups are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we are." (G.K. Chesterton)

Proverbs 8v30 describes Jesus as childlike, filled with fresh delight daily, always laughing in the presence of the Father, and playing in every corner of his world. Heaven does not get boring, we don't grow tearsome of it like we do with this world. Every day is a delight. Every day we are like children again. Porterbrook puts it like this:

"Our life and joy will be gigantic so that each moment will bring fresh ecstasy...We will cry to God, "Again, again, do it again!" Now we are old and tired and cynical. But then we will be young again, forever young, forever delighting in God."

Lets look forward to this hope.