{"id":18462,"date":"2017-11-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-12T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/ecclesiology-003\/"},"modified":"2017-11-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-11-12T06:00:00","slug":"ecclesiology-003","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/ecclesiology-003\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecclesiology 003"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[89],"series_event":[484],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18462","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-acts","series_event-ecclesiology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Ecclesiology 003","sermon_date":"20171112","sermon_month":"11","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":5140,"sermon_slides":5141,"sermon_mp3":5147,"sermon_id":"1112171014424","series_or_event":484,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":89,"chapter_and_verse":"20:28","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nEcclesiology 003\n\n11-12-17\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 3\n\nLet\u2019s pray.\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re grateful for today and grateful for Your church and Your truth.\u00a0 I do ask that\u00a0 You\u2019ll be with us today.\u00a0 I pray this will be a special day this weekend for veterans across our country and those that have served in our church.\u00a0 And we lift up this terrible tragedy that happened last Sunday while we were here worshipping and I just pray for Your continuing comfort to the victims.\u00a0 And Father, I pray for protection, not only here but for churches all across the country and the world that are under physical attack in many cases.\u00a0 And so I ask for that and I just ask for Your illuminating ministry of the Spirit and we\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026 Amen!\n\nLet\u2019s take our bibles if we could and open them to the Book of Acts, chapter 20 and verse 28.\u00a0 And as you all know we have started a study on the Doctrine of Ecclesiology which is the study of the church, which is pretty important since we belong to a church and go to a church and so obviously the fact that you\u2019re here this morning at church indicates that church is sort of important to you.\u00a0 So maybe we should figure out what God says about the church.\u00a0 Amen.\n\nSo we start off with the definition of Ecclesiology, ekklesia<\/em> just means the called out ones, and \u201cology\u201d of course is the study of; what does the Bible say about this doctrine of the church?\u00a0 And we talked about the fact that when the church was added to the plan of God that was the third people group added by God according to 1 Corinthians 10:32.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 10:32, \u201cGive no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God;\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 So prior to that point in time there were only Gentiles and Jews.\u00a0 And prior to Genesis 12 there were only Gentiles.\u00a0 So Gentiles, Genesis 1-11, the Hebrew race starts in Genesis 12, and that becomes the instrument that God has used, and by the way, in the future will use to bless the world.\n\nBut then beginning in Acts 2 he added a third people group, the church of God.\u00a0 So the church is just as significant as is the Hebrew nation.\u00a0 And we sort of defined the church as a body or a new man.\u00a0 One of my seminary professors, I like his definition, he calls the church God\u2019s special project.\u00a0 Do you all have special projects in your house that you\u2019re working on and you keep it in a room where no one can get to, which is a good thing as long as you\u2019re not building an explosive or something.\n\nBut we have these little projects that we\u2019re working on and that\u2019s basically what the church is; it\u2019s God\u2019s project, it\u2019s His building project in the present age.\u00a0 And so to disrespect church is really to disrespect God because the church is God\u2019s special project.\u00a0 And so the church then would consist of all people, both Jews and Gentiles, who have trusted in the very Messiah that national Israel rejected in the first century.\u00a0 So the moment a person places their personal faith in Christ in this age for salvation is the moment that they are baptized or identified with this new man, this spiritual body called the church.\n\nAnd the last time we were together this was the chart that was supposed to be up; remember I had some font issues but you have this in your notes, right?\u00a0 So we were dealing with the difference between the universal church and the local church.\u00a0 Remember we talked about that.\u00a0 And a lot of people are denying the reality of the universal church.\u00a0 They just say well what\u2019s important is the local church.\u00a0 And I tried to make the case that that is not true.\u00a0 The Bible has its differentiations between the two.\u00a0 So we walked through that.\n\nAnd what I want to move into here is number three, word pictures of the church.\u00a0 A picture paints a thousand words and God could have just gone on and on with all this linguistic detail describing every little facet of the church.\u00a0 But sort of to simplify things He\u2019s given us seven word pictures of the church and each word picture communicates so much truth; I mean, you could literally drown yourself in it.\u00a0 But I\u2019m going to try to start these today, I don\u2019t think I can finish them all today but if you understand the seven word pictures that God has given for the church you start to see God\u2019s plan for the church, God\u2019s blueprint for the church, God\u2019s value for the church, why God has set up the church in this age the way He has, etc. etc. etc.\n\nSo the first word picture that is used in the New Testament to describe the church, and you\u2019ll see this over and over again, is the relationship of the shepherd to the sheep.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not sure if I have time to look at every single one of these verses, you have them there on the screen, [John 10:16; Acts 20:28; Hebrews 13:20; 1 Peter 5:2-4]\u00a0 But maybe we\u2019ll just look at one of them.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I had you open up to Acts 20:28.\u00a0 Paul here is instructing the elders over the church at Ephesus.\u00a0 And Paul says, \u201cBe on guard for yourselves and for all the flock,\u201d whom the elder board has made you overseers\u2026 oh, I\u2019m sorry, it doesn\u2019t say that does it.\u00a0 \u201cBe on guard for yourselves and for all the flock\u201d whom you got voted into power over\u2026\u201d no, it doesn\u2019t say that either, \u201cBe on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the\u201d what? \u201cHoly Spirit has made you\u201d that\u2019s the elders, \u201coverseers, [to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.]\u201d\n\nSo a person becomes an elder in a church not because they won a popularity contest or something like that.\u00a0 They are made an elder in the church because God gave them that role.\u00a0 And so when we\u2019re selecting elders that would be one of our goals, right?\u00a0 We try to identify the people, the men in the case of elders, that God has already selected.\u00a0 And to put a person in charge over anything in the church that God has selected, let me just tell you from personal experience, is a total disaster.\u00a0 So we\u2019re trying to identify the men, in the case of elders, that God has\u00a0 His hand on and typically you can figure that out because they\u2019re already doing the work of a shepherd anyway, without anybody asking them to do it because it\u2019s a calling, it\u2019s what Paul called an inward compulsion.\u00a0 So if they\u2019re already doing that role and they show evidence of it those are the people that we want to lay hands on.\n\nAnyway, back to verse 28, \u201cBe on guard for yourselves and for all the flock,\u201d see the shepherd imagery, \u201camong whom thee Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd\u201d there\u2019s the shepherd\/flock imagery, \u201cthe church which He purchased with His own blood.\u201d\u00a0 And you\u2019ll see the same imagery in John 10:16; [John 10:16, \u201cI have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.\u201d]\n\nIt\u2019s very big in Peter\u2019s writings, 1 Peter 5:2-4.\u00a0 And I\u2019ll just read to you one more, it\u2019s really big in the Book of Hebrews, at the end of the book, Hebrews 13:20, it says: \u201cNow the God grace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 So we are the sheep, He is the shepherd.\n\nAnd most people look at this and it shows up sometimes on Christmas cards and holiday cards and we say oh, that\u2019s so cute, and look at these cuddly sheep, and look at how wonderful this imagery is, but the reality is I think this is more of an insult, if you understand it than it is a compliment.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because sheep in the natural world are probably some of the dumbest animals that have ever walked this earth.\u00a0 I mean, sheep will literally charge right over a cliff following each other if you don\u2019t shepherd them.\u00a0 Or they\u2019ll start to devour each other and they\u2019ll stampede each other.\n\nAnd so the fact that we are called \u201csheep\u201d indicates to us that we are in a very vulnerable predicament and we don\u2019t even know how to protect ourselves spiritually, any more than a sheep left to their own devices would know how to protect themselves.\u00a0 So we are in need of the Great Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord Jesus Christ shepherds His church through under shepherds functioning under His authority, that we would call what?\u00a0 We would call them elders.\n\nAnd this is what Peter is talking about in 1 Peter 5:2-4 where he\u2019s speaking out to the under shepherds functioning under the headship of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Peter tells the elders to \u201cshepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of<\/em> God\u2026\u201d\u00a0 In other words, an elder is somebody that\u2019s already doing the work of an elder because God has put on that elder\u2019s heart a calling, an inner compulsion.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Peter is speaking of doing this voluntarily.\u00a0 \u201cnot under compulsion but voluntarily, according to the will of God, and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; [3] not yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.\u201d\u00a0 [4, \u201cAnd when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.\u201d]\n\nSo unfortunately we\u2019ve had an elder or two here that kind of approaches their job sort of like a military commander, they want to bark orders and submit sheep and all of this stuff and all that does is alienate the sheep.\u00a0 A shepherd doesn\u2019t function that way.\u00a0 Peter specifically says not lording authority, so one of the greatest principles you can learn in the Bible is you don\u2019t lead people from the top down; you lead people from the bottom up, providing largely to the flock an example of what we would call, what Charles Swindoll calls, and I like this metaphor that he uses, \u201cservant leadership.\u201d\u00a0 And that goes right into the teachings of Christ, I believe it\u2019s around Mark 10 if I\u2019m not mistaken, I could be wrong on that but it\u2019s in the Gospel of Mark anyway, where the disciples are arguing about who\u2019s going to be the greatest.\u00a0 [Luke 9:46, \u201cAn argument started among them as to which of them might be the greatest.\u201d]\n\nAnd believe it or not folks, that kind of silliness happens all the time in churches.\u00a0 What about MY ministry, what about MY visibility, what about MY title, and these things preoccupy us and Jesus says that\u2019s not how it\u2019s supposed to be amongst disciples of Mine.\u00a0 The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.\u00a0 [Matthew 20:28, \u201c\u2026just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.\u201d]\u00a0 So if you qualify as an elder, and for that matter a deacon, basically you\u2019re in the role of a servant.\u00a0 And we haven\u2019t even talked about deacons but that\u2019s what the word \u201cdeacon\u201d means; it means a servant.\u00a0 And Peter here is giving these instructions to these under shepherds and then he says, verse 4, \u201cAnd when the Chief Shepherd appears\u2026..\u201d\u00a0 Aha, so a shepherd is not on his own authority, he\u2019s functioning as an under shepherd under the ultimate shepherding of Jesus Christ.\n\n\u201cAnd when the sheep shepherd appears you will receive the unfading crown of glory.\u201d\u00a0 So the shepherd is to do his job because he\u2019s burdened by the Lord, he\u2019s not really in it looking for some kind of reward from man, materially or esteem or otherwise. He\u2019s doing it because God put a burden on his heart and he\u2019s looking to the ultimate shepherd, Jesus Christ, to whom he\u2019s accountable for his ultimate reward.\n\nSo in the natural world what does a shepherd do?\u00a0 A shepherd does three things and these all begin with the letter G.\u00a0 Number 1, he guards and we\u2019ve been to the Middle East, to Israel a couple of times and we actually went to the land of Israel and saw actual shepherds in action. So we could see firsthand the metaphor that Jesus was developing here; He\u2019s picking things from the society of the nation of Israel that the people could identify with.\u00a0 We\u2019re kind of removed from it because we\u2019re a 21st<\/sup> century population but Jesus is using metaphors from their time.\u00a0 And you go and watch a shepherd do his job, number 1, he\u2019s guarding, guarding the sheepfold or the flock from the wolf.\u00a0 Now why would sheep need to be protected from the wolf?\u00a0 Because they\u2019re completely docile and they\u2019re helpless.\n\nA lot of people want to come in here and they want to spread all kinds of strange ideas and our job as elders is to create sort of a wall against that because that\u2019s what shepherds do; they protect the sheep.\u00a0 That\u2019s their basic calling.\u00a0 So the first \u201cG\u201d is guard.\u00a0 The second G is guide.\u00a0 And of course you can see all of this in Psalm 23, where David said, \u201cThe LORD is my shepherd\u201d and he goes on and he says, \u201cHe leads me beside still waters,\u201d so it\u2019s a picture of the shepherd guiding the sheep in a direction that they should go.\u00a0 So that\u2019s the second function of spiritual leadership in a church, we\u2019re to guide the sheep; guide them in a lot of ways, guide them in the right ways of thinking, guide them into correct understanding of the Bible, if people have counselling issues we try to guide them accordingly.\u00a0 And the way this church works is if you\u2019re here for a number of weeks then you are automatically assigned an elder, and I\u2019m not sure how well we communicate that but that\u2019s the way it\u2019s supposed to be working, and so when you have an issue you have a point of contact with somebody that you\u2019ve met and hopefully you\u2019re developing a personal relationship with.\n\nSo the shepherd and shepherds guard; the shepherd and shepherds guide, and the third \u201cg\u201d is grace, because \u201cman does not live by bread alone but by\u201d what, \u201cevery word that proceeds from the mouth of God.\u201d\u00a0 I think that\u2019s in Matthew 4:4 and if I remember right Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy 8:3.\u00a0 [Deuteronomy 8:3, \u201cHe humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.\u201d]\n\nJob 23:12 says I value His Words, the Word of God, more than my daily food.\u00a0 [Job 23:12, \u201cI have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.\u201d]\n\nAnd frankly as the pastor-teacher of Sugar Land Bible Church that is my primary calling; it\u2019s to feed the sheep over and over again with the regular intake of God\u2019s Word, because what\u2019s happen\u00ading is you\u2019re starving, you\u2019re emaciated, you\u2019re going through struggles during the week and you have spiritual needs and my job is to open the Word of God as the Holy Spirit allows me and to teach the Word of God in such a way that you leave here nourished and you leave here fed. And if that isn\u2019t happening, if the fellow in the pulpit is too busy talking about self-empowerment principles or psychological ideas then he basically is derelict in his duties and in his responsibilities before the Lord.\n\nAnd you\u2019ll notice what Matthew 4: 4 says, \u201cMan does not live by bread alone but by\u201d what\u2019s the next word? \u201cevery word that proceeds from the mouth of God.\u201d\u00a0 Well why does Pastor Andy take so long going through Books of the Bible; can\u2019t we just get the big point of chapter 10 of Daniel and move on?\u00a0 And the answer is yeah, we\u2019re going to get the big point, the big point is the invisible war, right.\u00a0 But we need to go through each word of the Bible because, \u201cMan shall live, not by bread alone but by every word [that proceeds out of the mouth of God]\u201d \u201cevery word\u201d means that \u201cevery word\u201d has to be covered.\n\nNow we don\u2019t have to give you everything I know about every word; I don\u2019t have to drown you in exegetical detail but the fact of the matter is that God inspired His Word in words.\u00a0 God didn\u2019t say hey, here\u2019s the big idea; He gave us words.\u00a0 And so if you\u2019re not in a church that is systematically moving through the Word of God, giving you commentary\u00a0 (hopefully in an applicable way) on every word then basically what\u2019s happening is you have an imbalanced diet.\u00a0 And imbalanced diet is basically where you eat certain things but you don\u2019t eat all of the food groups that you need for health.\n\nSo \u201cevery word\u201d is going to force us into a balanced diet because as you\u2019re going through every word of the Scripture what you\u2019re starting to see is there are all kinds of different subjects here.\u00a0 In chapter 9 we were in the seventy weeks prophecy, now in Daniel 10 we\u2019re not in the seventy weeks prophecy, we\u2019re in spiritual warfare.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because God has assigned the topics in the order that he inspired them.\u00a0 So as you\u2019re diligently moving through the Word of God, teaching the whole counsel of God\u2019s Word what\u2019s happening is the sheep are being given all of the nutrients, spiritually, that they need to develop right.\n\nAnd the fact of the matter is if I was not a verse by verse teacher I\u2019ll tell you exactly what I would do: I would pick and choose topics, number 1, that are personally interesting to me and probably number 2, because I have sort of a people pleasing personality (believe it or not), I would pick topics that wouldn\u2019t hurt anybody\u2019s feelings, because that\u2019s my nature.\u00a0 But when you\u2019re moving through the Bible systematically verse by verse guess what?\u00a0 I don\u2019t get to pick the topics; God picks the topics.\n\nAnd you all may have been born in the morning but it wasn\u2019t yesterday morning and you can see very clearly if I leapfrog from one verse to another and you\u2019d say wait a minute, what about that other part there in Matthew 19 about divorce and remarriage, you didn\u2019t talk about that?\u00a0 Well guess what?\u00a0 I have to talk about that because if you\u2019re going through Matthew\u2019s Gospel you\u2019re forced to confront every subject.\u00a0 And so in the process I\u2019m fulfilling my spiritual responsibility before God where I\u2019m giving you all of the food groups.\u00a0 Now some people like that approach; some people don\u2019t like that approach but here is the reality of the situation: the Chief Shepherd is going to appear, that\u2019s Jesus.\u00a0 And He\u2019s going to hold under shepherds, like myself, responsible\u2026 watch this very carefully, not just based on what I say but what I don\u2019t say.\u00a0 And if you go back to Acts 20, we were just there weren\u2019t we, we were in Acts 20:28 but did you catch verses 26 and 27?\n\nLook at what it says here: \u201cTherefore, I testify to you this day\u201d Paul says, \u201cthat I am innocent of the blood of all men.\u201d\u00a0 Now that language goes right back, we don\u2019t have time to look at it but just jot down Ezekiel 33:7-9 and Ezekiel 3:17-19.\n\n[Ezekiel 33:7-9, \u201cNow as for you, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a message from My mouth and give them warning from Me. [8] \u201cWhen I say to the wicked, \u2018O wicked man, you will surely die,\u2019 and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand. [9] \u201cBut if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your life.\u201d ]\n\n[Ezekiel 3:17-19, \u201cSon of man, I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from My mouth, warn them from Me. [18] When I say to the wicked, \u2018You will surely die,\u2019 and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. [19] Yet if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself.\u201d]\n\nThose are the two calling sections in the Book of Ezekiel.\u00a0 Why are there two calling sections?\u00a0 Because in the first half of the book Ezekiel is preaching judgment so he\u2019s consequently called by God.\u00a0 In the second part of the book he\u2019s speaking restoration so he\u2019s called again by God.\u00a0 And when you study those verses that I just commended to you from the Book of Ezekiel what you will see is Ezekiel is told to tell the people everything that God has said.\u00a0 And God, two times, tells Ezekiel if you tell them everything I have said and they won\u2019t listen, then you\u2019ve delivered yourself.\nOn the other hand, if people die in their sin and\u00a0 you never told them everything I said then God says to Ezekiel, Ezekiel, I\u2019m coming after you because I\u2019m the one that made you the watchman on the wall.\n\nSo when the Apostle Paul in the New Testament says I am innocent of the blood of all men\u201d he is taking imagery from the Book of Ezekiel and he is basically saying I have delivered myself.\u00a0 Why has Paul delivered himself?\u00a0 Because he declared everything God said by doing what?\u00a0 Giving to the people the what?\u00a0 Verse 27, \u201cFor I did not shrink from declaring to you the\u201d what? \u201cthe whole purpose of God.\u201d\u00a0 So Paul says I\u2019m an under shepherd, I\u2019m going to be held accountable by the ultimate shepherd and so because I\u2019ve told you everything that God has told me to tell you I am now in a position of innocence before God; my accountability has been vindicated because the Book of James, chapter 3 and verse 1 says, \u201cLet few of you presume to be\u201d what? \u201cteachers.\u201d\n\nThe moment you put yourself in the role of a teacher is the moment your accountable before God to tell people what God has said, and God holds you accountable for what you say, and watch this, what\u00a0 you don\u2019t say.\u00a0 Are you with me on that?\u00a0 Because there\u2019s an awful lot of churches when you listen to them preach and what they say isn\u2019t so bad but it\u2019s what they leave out.\u00a0 I can\u2019t tell you how many e-mails I get from people that say my pastor won\u2019t touch the Book of Revelation, my pastor never talks about the nation of Israel.\u00a0 And now to make it worse we\u2019ve got these seeker friendly churches where the goal is to give everybody the warm fuzzes of the day.\u00a0 And so if that\u2019s your agenda, because you want\u00a0 your church to get bigger, which is not always a bad thing, God can make big churches if he wants to.\n\nBut if your goal is to get the church to get bigger, to get the people in the door, then you move away from certain subjects that might hurt someone\u2019s feelings.\u00a0 \u00a0Like what?\u00a0 Well, 70% of the Bible might hurt your feelings because it talks about blood, it talks about sin, it talks about Satan, it talks about the fact that we\u2019re not saved by our own works, we\u2019re saved only based on what God has done for us, which is an attack, theologically speaking, on human pride.\u00a0 And you see, the verse by verse methodology forces a shepherd to confront every subject and to teach it, whether people want to hear it or not, or whether the shepherd personally is interested in that or not.\n\nAnd that\u2019s a big deal to me because one of these days God is going to hold me accountable as the Chief Shepherd when He appears and He\u2019s going to say you know, you never covered this subject here, you never covered that subject.\u00a0 And so I\u2019ve already got my defense prepared: my defense is I went directly through the Word of God, I confronted every word in the Word of God and by the way, Jesus in Matthew 5:18 says not only shall man not live by bread alone but by every word, but what are the words in the Bible made up of exactly?\u00a0 Matthew 5:18, He says, \u201ctruly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.\u201d So the words in the Bible which are necessary to feed us are made up of letters and the letters are made up of the smallest strokes of the pen.\u00a0 See that?\n\nNow don\u2019t blame me for that; that\u2019s how God decided to encapsulate His Word to lost humanity.\u00a0 So the function of a shepherd is to cover every stroke of the pen which comprise the letters and every letter which comprises the words and every word which comprises entire books.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 So God is not neutral on the subject of method.\u00a0 I want people to understand that because the mentality that\u2019s out there today in evangelicalism is your theology is not up for grabs but method is neutral.\u00a0\u00a0 You can use whatever method you want in the church and I resist and reject that statement from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet.\u00a0 Just like your theology can\u2019t be changed if it\u2019s based on the Bible; neither can your method be changed. God has given to the shepherd or under shepherds a method and the method is to feed the flock of God with the whole counsel of God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 And if anybody can come up with another methodology besides verse by verse teaching, that covers every word, I\u2019m all ears because I don\u2019t think you can do this unless you\u2019re moving through the Bible verse by verse, which is your function before God because you are an under shepherd who will give an account to the chief shepherd.\n\nSo look at that; I just got all of that, I just talked for a whole half hour there, didn\u2019t I, and where did I get all that from?\u00a0 I got that just from the simple shepherd\/sheep analogy.\u00a0 And in your personal study you could do deeper in it and pull other things out of it.\u00a0 But what I\u2019m saying is the Holy Spirit could have gone on and on into all of this detail describing what I just said but to save time and space he gives us a sharp simple image or a metaphor or a word picture.\n\nWell, let\u2019s try another one here.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go over to 1 Corinthians 12:12-13,:He is the head, we are the\u201d what \u201cthe body.\u201d\u00a0 Take a look at 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, those other verses you can read on\u00a0 your own, they teach the same thing, Romans 12:5; Ephesians 1:22-23.\u00a0 Notice what Paul says, \u201c\u201cFor even as the body is one and yet<\/em> has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. [13] For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.\u201d\n\nNow over in the Book of Ephesians, chapter 1, verse 22-23, that\u2019s where we learn that Jesus is the head of the body.\u00a0 It says, \u201cAnd He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, [23] which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.\u201d\u00a0 So the second word picture is He\u2019s the brain or the head, we are the body.\u00a0 Now think of all of the things about a church that that communicates.\u00a0 Just as the mind or the nerve center sends out instructions to different parts of the body, that in essence is what\u2019s supposed to be happening and when you have a situation medically where one person\u2019s body works independently of the rest of their body and is somehow disconnected from the nerve center then that\u2019s a medical condition.\n\nSo what happens a lot of time in the body of Christ is one person is functioning and they\u2019re doing it in contradistinction or they\u2019re doing it sometime in offense to other members of the body.\u00a0 And you have situations in churches where Christians can\u2019t get along and they\u2019re fighting back and forth.\u00a0 And you say well at some point one of these believers got out of fellowship with Christ because if they were both connected to the same head the parts of the body would be working in harmony with each other.\u00a0 So you notice that in my physical body I don\u2019t have two right hands or two left hands; I\u2019ve got a right hand and a left hand.\u00a0 My mind is sending out instructions to those hands.\u00a0 They\u2019re not fighting with each other; they\u2019re working in harmony with each other, as the entire rest of my human body.\u00a0 And consequently my body is functioning the way that it should.\n\nThat\u2019s how a church is supposed to work.\u00a0 We\u2019re supposed to be united to Jesus Christ, the head, who is shouting out nerve-centered directions to the rest of us and we\u2019re working in harmony with each other; we\u2019re not enemies of each other any more than my right hand and my left hand would go to war with each other. We\u2019re working in harmony with each other and my body works best when all of the parts work in harmony with each other.\u00a0 You get something that\u2019s doing its own thing independent of the rest of the body, not only do you have a medical condition of some kind there but you don\u2019t have an effective body.\n\nSo just as my physical body has different parts so too the body of Christ. All of us bring something a little bit different to the table because we\u2019re all gifted different ways.\u00a0 And if two of us are exactly the same then one of us is unnecessary. So I don\u2019t have two left feet, two right feet, I\u2019ve got a right foot, I\u2019ve got a left foot, they work in harmony with each other and as they work in harmony with each other the work of my body can go forward.\u00a0 And this is important because there are so many Christians that want to put other Christians into some kind of straight jacket or into some kind of box and we\u2019re not really respecting the individuality of certain Christians; if you want to do ministry you\u2019ve got to do it exactly this way.\u00a0 Well, that would be the equivalent of having two left feet, two right feet, etc.\n\nAnd beyond that, if\u00a0 you go over to 1 Corinthians 12 for just a minute, as Paul unfolds this metaphor more specifically here than perhaps anywhere in the whole Bible, if you look at verse 21, look at what it says, \u201cAnd the eye cannot say to the hand, \u2018I have no need of you\u2019; or again the head to the feet, \u2018I have no need of you.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 So a lot of times someone will come to the table with an idea or they\u2019ll maybe have a different take on a ministry and the direction it should go, and another person will have another philosophy or another take on a direction of a ministry and the way it should go.\u00a0 And what happens sadly is you have two people that go to war with each other, not understanding that God put them in that ministry to help each other, because person A sees things slightly differently than person P.\u00a0 And person B sees things slightly different than person A.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the design of God because He wants a right hand and a left hand, He doesn\u2019t want two right hands.\n\nAnd so this is sometimes where we lose patience with people; instead we ought to just step back, we ought to stay connected to the head by way of fellowship, Jesus Christ, and we ought to just relax a little bit and say okay, well what is God doing in this situation, rather than demanding complete conformity in a certain area any more than my right hand would demand that my left hand behave exactly like my right hand would.\n\nAnd as you continue to look at this it says in verse 22, \u201cOn the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary;\u201d and the problem with a lot of us is if we don\u2019t have a ministry that\u2019s visible we think that it\u2019s not important.\u00a0 Well, let me ask you a question; can you see my heart beating right now\u2026unless you have X-ray vision you can\u2019t see that can\u00a0 you?\u00a0 But I guarantee you one thing, if that heart stops beating you\u2019re going to see something, a collapsed corpse up here in just a few seconds.\u00a0 Can you see my lungs doing their job?\u00a0 You can\u2019t see that either. But I guarantee you this much though, if one of those lungs stops working the whole body suffers.\n\nSo you may have some kind of ministry, you may have some kind of roll where nobody actually sees what you\u2019re doing except the Lord, which is a pretty good place to be in when you think about it because then\u00a0 your motives don\u2019t get corrupted as to why you\u2019re doing what you\u2019re doing.\u00a0 And nobody pats you on the back, nobody gives you any gratification,\u00a0 you\u2019re just doing what you think God has called you to do.\u00a0 And nobody probably will notice that you\u2019re doing that until you stop doing it because once you stop doing it it\u2019s like a lung that\u2019s no longer working and the whole body suffers.\n\nAnd he goes on in verse 26, and look at this, he says, \u00a0\u201cAnd if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.\u201d\u00a0 So one member is promoted, the other member is not promoted.\u00a0 Now does the second member become jealous of the person that\u2019s promoted.\u00a0 No, that shouldn\u2019t be the case any more than the right hand gets jealous of the\u00a0 left hand because we\u2019re all on the same team.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 We\u2019re teammates.\n\nI had sort of this rival thing going on with another guy in my basketball team in high school and it was to the point where it was sort of counterproductive to the team.\u00a0 The team was losing because of this internal rivalry between two players.\u00a0 So finally the coach sits us both down, I don\u2019t know if you understand this or not, you are teammates; you are on the same team and if you guys sit and war with each other or stand and war with each other or rival each other or are jealous of each other the whole team suffers. So when that little issue got resolved guess what happened?\u00a0 We started winning more games.\u00a0 And you watch these NBA players with their massive salaries and egos that go with it and\u00a0 you get that master coach, like Phil Jackson for example, who\u2019s coached Michael Jordan, he\u2019s coached Coby Bryant, and all of these guys and the talk that he gives them all at the beginning of the year is you guys look, there could be a lot of individual honors that you could get but I guarantee you this much, you start winning championships and the individual honors will start coming in, but you can\u2019t win championships as long as two teammates are jealous of each other and are trying to outrival one another.\n\nAnd so that\u2019s what the Great Shepherd is saying to His church, is we are teammates here; we are on the same team. We don\u2019t always see everything through the exact same prism but that\u2019s the design of God because God is a God of diversity.\u00a0 And so I think a lot of times we need to give each other a little bit of slack and a little bit of space and I think many times we forget the grace that God gives us. \u00a0Amen!\u00a0 So we forget that God has chosen to treat us with grace so when I have a fellow Christian I\u2019m upset with I don\u2019t give them any grace.\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s inconsistent; if God has chosen to treat me with grace shouldn\u2019t I treat other people with grace?\n\nAnd so many times we\u2019re treated with grace by God and we want to treat other people in the body of Christ with absolute justice.\u00a0 And Jesus told a whole parable about that in Matthew 18, you know the story, the fellow that was forgiven much and he found somebody that owed him a few dollars and demanded that he be thrown in debtor\u2019s prison.\u00a0 That\u2019s what we\u2019re like in the eyes of God when we don\u2019t treat people with the grace that we have been given.\n\nAnd also in verse 26 it says, \u201cif one member suffers,\u201d what does it say, \u201call members suffer.\u201d\u00a0 Now I\u2019ve had situations in 2011 for example, where I got this ingrown fingernail and I was in Minnesota when it happened and it just blew up like a balloon and it was to the point where any touching that I did of this finger would just immediately give me sharp pain.\u00a0 And I was at Duluth Bible Church the first time for their conference, and fortunately, by God\u2019s providence, the family that hosted me was a medical family, medical doctors and all that.\u00a0 So they numbed it up and they pierced the swelling and my wife normally takes care of me in those cases because she\u2019s a nurse, but I was away from home, but they got the whole thing fixed.\n\nBut I\u2019ll tell you something; what was happening in my finger, even though it\u2019s a little tiny part of my body, was making my whole being miserable.\u00a0 I mean, even though if you measured out space wise my index finger is a very small part of my whole body.\u00a0 I was one unhappy camper as long as this little thing was bothering me.\u00a0 And that\u2019s how it\u2019s to be in the body of Christ; if one person that is deemed, perhaps in the eyes of man insignificant, if that person is suffering then we should all be hurting because we are all connected to the same body.\n\nSo that\u2019s why we try to keep contact with our shut-ins, we have people in this church that came for years but can\u2019t come any more because of health reasons; we like to keep them in circulation on the prayer list, if they\u2019re interested in receiving the CD\u2019s or the DVD\u2019s we like to make that ministry available to them.\u00a0 We like to make sure they\u2019re still hooked up to their computer so they can at least dial in and watch the service.\u00a0 And we like to make sure that we don\u2019t forget about those people because you can\u2019t forget about somebody that\u2019s a fellow Christian because they\u2019re part of the same body.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 Any more than this little finger here, I can just forget about it, as long as it was not functioning the way it was supposed to I was miserable. So if one person in the body of Christ is suffering that should cause all of us to suffer and reach out with compassion.\n\nAnd if one person in the body of Christ gets ahead and gets promoted the rest of the body shouldn\u2019t be jealous; we ought to be happy because we\u2019re all part of the same body and my left hand shouldn\u2019t be jealous of my right hand.\u00a0 Now look at that; I just took another half hour, didn\u2019t I, talking about head, body, spiritual lessons.\u00a0 And I can guarantee you this much, I only scratched the surface there. But these are all valid spiritual applications that you can gain just by paying attention to these various metaphors.\n\nWe have time, let\u2019s try a third one, shall we?\u00a0 Let\u2019s go over to 2 Corinthians 11:2-3,word picture number 3 is bride to groom.\u00a0 We are the bride, Jesus is the groom.\u00a0 Now think of the imagery that that communicates.\u00a0 Think about how a man, when he falls in love with a woman pursues that woman.\u00a0 Think of the emotional and in some cases physical passion that overtakes such a person.\u00a0 That is the love of Christ for you and me, His bride.\n\nBeyond that there\u2019s a reason why a woman, when she walks down the aisle to get married is wearing which color?\u00a0 White!\u00a0 White communicates what?\u00a0 Purity, so when she wears white she is basically communicating that she has kept herself pure for that man.\u00a0 So if we are the bride of Christ, betrothed, engaged to be married, what should be our posture in the world.\u00a0 Spiritual purity, shouldn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Practical daily purity should be the f unction of every child of God if we\u00a0 understand this metaphor correctly.\u00a0 And\u00a0 you\u2019ll notice what Paul says here.\n\nHe builds on this in 2 Corinthians 11:2-3, \u201cFor I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed\u201d in other words Paul says I\u2019m just the best man, I introduced you as the bride to your groom, your future husband, Jesus Christ.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026 for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as<\/em> a pure virgin. [3] But I fear, lest somehow as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.\u201d\n\nWhat is Paul saying here?\u00a0 He\u2019s like a father standing guard over his virgin daughter, trying to protect his virgin daughter from the wrong type of man.\u00a0 Amen.\u00a0 My daughter is 11 and this is starting to concern me a little bit; I\u2019m going to be in this role really fast and I\u2019m going to do my best as dad to keep her away from the wrong person because in my opinion she is Mrs. Right and I want her to get married to who?\u00a0 Mr. Right, and there\u2019s a lot of not so Mr. Rights out there, even in Christianity there\u2019s a lot of people that I wouldn\u2019t let my daughter near if I had any control over it whatsoever.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the function of a parent; a parent basically does that.\n\nPaul says I\u2019m doing the same thing for you Corinthians because I\u2019m the one that introduced\u00a0 you to your future husband.\u00a0 But you know what?\u00a0 The devil deceived Eve.\u00a0 You know, the devil deceived Eve\u2026 and by the way, Paul believed in the literal Adam and Eve here, didn\u2019t he.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t say we\u2019re\u00a0 using the symbol of the Garden of Eden, he took these things as they actually happened, and it does bother me to some extent to watch so many Christians not wanting to take Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden and the serpent and the tree of knowledge as literal things.\n\nYou start tampering with that and it\u2019s just a matter of time before you start tampering with Jesus because Jesus is the last Adam.\u00a0 You play games with the first Adam, dehistoricize him, symbolize him, Luke\u2019s Gospel connects Jesus right back to Adam.\u00a0 It\u2019s just a matter of time before you start to dehistoricize, symbolize, deliteralize Jesus Christ.\u00a0 By the way, that\u2019s where our culture is at, they call it the Jesus myth.\u00a0 Well, why is our culture calling Jesus a myth?\u00a0 Because they wrote off Adam and Eve as historical people a long time ago, and you play that game and you\u2019re going to dehistoricize the last Adam just as\u00a0 you dehistoricized the first Adam.\n\nBut Eve had the easiest job description on planet earth, as did Adam.\u00a0 You freely do whatever you want except one thing; don\u2019t eat from the tree of knowledge.\u00a0 Anything else you do is fine.\u00a0 And how the devil came and beguiled them and took what was simple and made it complex and so Paul to the Corinthians is saying you\u2019re got the easiest job description on planet earth.\u00a0 You\u2019re saved because you trusted in Jesus Christ for personal salvation.\u00a0 I mean, how complicated is that?\u00a0 That\u2019s not complicated at all, a child can understand that, by divine design.\n\nPaul says I\u2019m worried that someone is going to come in here, like Satan, and take what was simple and make it complicated and put you under works and put you under legalism and when that happens it\u2019s like you losing your virginity before you\u2019re appointed marriage date.\u00a0 In other words, you\u2019re hampering your future marriage bed because you\u2019re playing games outside of the will of God, sexually, in the present.\u00a0 And Paul says a father would try to keep his virgin daughter away from that kind of thing, not to make life miserable for her but to protect her for what God has for her future.\u00a0 And in the same way Paul says you\u2019re basically losing your virginity because you\u2019re moving into works, you\u2019re moving into false doctrine, and that is going to damage your future marriage.\n\nSo the betrothal period, I\u2019ll talk about that in just a minute, actually I probably won\u2019t because I\u2019m running out of time, is a very important time period.\u00a0 So this whole concept brings up the Jewish marriage analogy.\u00a0 If you can\u2019t understand the Jewish marriage analogy, which has ten parts to it, you can\u2019t really understand this word picture very well.\u00a0\u00a0 You can\u2019t understand what we\u2019re supposed to be like in the present and what the future has for us.\n\nSo I\u2019m just going to rattle off these ten things real fast and then I\u2019ll come back next week and explain how it applies to the church.\u00a0 This is how a Jewish marriage worked.\n\nNumber 1, the groom initiated and he entered into a covenant, typically with the future bride\u2019s father, and he made a payment for the bride, and consequently the bride and the groom drank from the same cup to signify the marriage contract.\u00a0 Number 2, the bride is now set apart exclusively for the groom.\u00a0 She is a woman spoken for.\u00a0 Number 3, the groom separates from the bride and returns to the father\u2019s house to do what?\u00a0 To prepare the bridal chamber.\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s number 3.\n\nNumber 4, during the period of absence, called the betrothal period, there is a loyalty test.\u00a0 Is this bride during this time of absence going to be loyal to the groom or not because if she wasn\u2019t that was grounds for terminating the contract.\u00a0 That\u2019s what\u2019s going on with Joseph and Mary.\u00a0 Joseph is engaged to Mary, right, and Mary shows up and says I\u2019m pregnant.\u00a0 And she says probably by way of conversation, Joseph says well how did you get pregnant, oh, the Holy Spirit did that to me!\u00a0 And Joseph is saying right, I was born in the morning but it wasn\u2019t yesterday morning. So Gabriel has to be dispatched from heaven to explain to Joseph that this is true, otherwise the whole contract would have been vitiated at that point.\u00a0 So that\u2019s the significance of the royalty test.\u00a0 And then number 5, the bride is retrieved; the groom returns at an unknown time preceded by a shout with escorts to retrieve the bride.\n\nThen what happens?\u00a0 The two are hidden in the father\u2019s house for how many days?\u00a0 Seven days, isn\u2019t that interesting, where three events transpire, and those are in 7, 8 and 9.\u00a0 The first event, number 7, the bride undergoes a ritual cleansing prior to the wedding ceremony.\u00a0 Number 8 the wedding ceremony itself, you have the meeting with the father\u2019s assembled guests and a private wedding ceremony and then number 9, the bride and the groom consummate the marriage.\u00a0 And then number 10 you have the bride and the groom formally hidden from the world at this time, are not publicly presented after the seven days are over, unveiled.\u00a0 And then there\u2019s a marriage feast, which I think happens on the earth.\n\nNow does this ring a bell?\u00a0 That is the exact pattern that we\u2019re on with the Lord.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have time to give you the parallels, I will next week.\u00a0 My point is simply this: I just talked for another half hour based on what?\u00a0 A word picture.\u00a0 Look at all of these things these word pictures reveal.\u00a0 So I\u2019ll stop talking, we have a couple of minutes left for questions if anybody has one.\n\nLet\u2019s pray.\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re grateful for these word pictures; help us to grow in these things as we learn more about the church and what the church is.\u00a0 I thank you for the pictures You\u2019ve given us and help us to live accordingly.\u00a0 And I pray You\u2019ll bless our worship service that follows. We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026. Amen.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t