The Body - One Body - Jackson Wilson

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.1 Peter 2:4-5God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them.John PiperWhat the Church is NOTWhat the Church isThe Church is NOT:Just a BuildingAnd let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.Hebrews 10:24-2516 But when I thought how to understand this,    it seemed to me a wearisome task,17 until I went into the sanctuary of God;    then I discerned their end.Psalm 73:16-17The Psalmist did not merely go to the building, he went to meet with God.Martyn Lloyd JonesWhat a wonderful place God’s house is. Often you will find deliverance by merely coming into it… People who neglect attendance at the house of God are not only being unscriptural—let me put it bluntly—they are fools.Martyn Lloyd JonesA SupplementFor MeA seeker-sensitive church (or seeker-church) is a model of ministry and worship designed to be especially accessible, welcoming, and understandable to unchurched or spiritually curious people (“seekers”). The goal is to remove barriers that might make non-Christians feel out of place and to present the gospel in a culturally relevant way.Stop looking for the perfect church. It does not exist. Even if it did exist, the moment you or I joined it, it would no longer be perfect.Nicky GumbleAn organization of minimal impactPETER’S CRUCIFIXION*DIETRICH BONHOEFFER*The Church is:Christ’s BodyFor as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.Romans 12:4-5The Church is not a religious community of worshippers of Christ but is Christ himself who has taken form among people.Dietrich BonhoefferBut Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. 4 And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”Acts 9:1-4InheritedSo then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,Ephesians 2:19-20For Jesus21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by[e] the Spirit.Ephesians 2:21-2225 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.Ephesians 5:25-27The Hope of the WorldIf the Church is central to God’s purpose, as seen in both history and the gospel, then it must surely also be central to our lives.John Stott