Lincoln

I wish to encourage you to live as those who are spiritually alive in Christ, not as those who are spiritually dead in sin. While the body of Christ is by design an ingenious living organise, made up of believers from all walks of life, it still requires guarding. Peter urges us to “be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Members should always be alert to dangers energised by the arch enemy of both God and believers.

The Church is never exempt from its fleshly vulnerability to sin. Regardless of how you may hate it, sin is ready to hatch a bad attitude into a bad thought, and then grow it to an even worse behaviour. Recognise Satan’s strategy; “resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world” (1 Peter 5:9). Your battle with sin is not unique to you. Feeling tired from the relentless onslaught of temptation is common. So, stubbornly dig your faith toes in, and stand determined in your faithfulness to Christ.

The fact is, sometimes the Lord will walk you through prolonged periods of struggle. You may not like to think of it as being approved by God, and obviously you don’t enjoy it, but it’s true. God is training you for holiness, and it almost always involves discomfort (Heb 12:10-11). There will be struggles, pains, temptations, fears, and even stumblings. However, realise that “after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Peter 5:10).

For the child of God, no suffering lasts forever without the Saviour’s intervention. Therefore, “continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving” (Colossians 4:2). Keep your eyes open for what the Lord is doing in and around you. As you observe His activity, pause to be thankful, then, come back to Him with modified prayer in response to what you have noticed.

Should you find yourself ensnared by sin, seek the help of a stronger believer who will help restore you to a healthy and stronger walk with Christ as Lord (Gal 6:1). Invite a more steadfast believer to stand by your side as you call for the Almighty to do what seems impossible. Genuinely, in full surrender, plead as David did; “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalms 51:10).

Don’t allow yourself to wallow in the mud of discouragement. The devil loves self-pity and a defeated attitude. Ask the Lord as David did; “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit” (Psalms 51:12). Plead with God to make you as stubborn for living a righteous life as He is. Rejoice in God’s patient perseverance with you. Express gratitude for the certainty of your salvation, for His forgiveness, and for the security you have in Christ which is sealed by His Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13).

Be encouraged; live as those who are spiritually alive in Christ. “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Colossians 3:12-14).

I want to encourage you today in appreciating the privilege of being adopted in as members of God’s family. Through personal faith in Jesus as Lord, you are placed by God into “the body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27).

Just as the human body has been masterfully designed; so also, the body of Christ is an ingenious work of God. Here, there are no clones, no robots, and no stereotypes. “For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function…” (Romans 12:4). In God’s grace, you are His unique handiwork adopted into Christ’s body and gifted with unique spiritual abilities ready for service. Paul continues to say that collectively “we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another” (Romans 12:5). In Christ, believers are integrated into Christ and to each other equally, thus forming the Church in all its variableness, yet bonded together.

Paul explained to the Corinthians that the “body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” (1 Corinthians 12:12-13 NIV). The Holy Spirit is intimately involved in designing each of you into your place within this spectacular multicultural spiritual body of believers.

So, membership in such a diverse yet functional grouping of Christians should grow appreciation to the point where you only want to encourage, build up and protect these valued people. It’s as Paul reminded Timothy, this is “how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15 NIV). God’s truth is not only the foundation of your relationship with God, but also of your relationships with other believers in your Church. Unitedly the Church stands upon and speaks the truth of God for His glory and each other’s blessing.

While this sounds wonderful, we all know what can happen when someone fails to live a Spirit filled life. When a hard hearted attitude takes control, the whole body feels the pain of their agitation. It only takes one self-centred heart to spoil any relationship. “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another” (Ephesians 4:25). Realising who the Holy Spirit has made you, and how he has placed you in Christ’s body, heightens your sense of worth and the value of others. Compassionate truthfulness, soft honesty, and affectionate integrity give evidence to this reality.

In the Church, quality relationships matter. Jesus said that it is through relationships with each other that “all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). Notice Jesus did not say that the world only would recognise your love as evidence of being His disciples. No, “all people” shall recognise love as being of Christ. This includes your fellow brother and sister in the Lord. One of Christ’s strongest testimonies to every person in your life is the way in which you express love on Christ’s behalf with your fellow Christian.

What a privilege we have as believer’s to live Christ by living His selfless love toward one another. This universally powerful testimony is unmistakably the evidence of Jesus Christ at work. This is what it means to live as members of Christ’s body.

Easter is an extraordinary celebration of Jesus’ empty tomb. While the world scoffs at the idea of believing in a Jesus that died and rose from the dead; for those who do believe, the blessings are innumerable.

Seven hundred years before Christ, Isaiah prophesied; “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him (Jesus); he (God) has put him (Jesus) to grief; when his (Jesus) soul makes an offering for (Our) guilt” (Isaiah 53:10).

Just as Jesus crucifixion was real, so the sin that He answered for was real also – but it was our sin, our guilt.

Likewise, Jesus wounds, both the physical wounds from the Roman soldiers, and the spiritual chastisement and separation from God were equally real. The wrath He took in our place was not pretend, it was not imagined – it was real, because our sin is real, and God’s judgement is real.

Personal recognition that it was your sin in Jesus on that cross is what makes Jesus death your death to sin. Therefore, Jesus death turns your guilt into peace with God. It changes separation from God to adoption into His family. It replaces fear of the unknown to assurance of what God says is certain.

The Christian faith is founded upon belief and confession “that Jesus is Lord and (you) believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead…” (Romans 10:9). If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, He’s not God. If He’s dead in the ground still, we are still dead in our sin awaiting judgement.

For believers, we surrender our lives to the Lord who is master over all of life and death. For Christians, the grave is NOT a dead end. It‘s for us to realise that should your body die,  you have NOT fulfilled your part of God’s eternal plan for your eternal life until you are resurrected and given new bodies in preparation for spending eternity with Him. For God, it’s just as important to raise the saints from the grave as it was to raise His Son Jesus from the grave.

Paul explains the resurrected body in 1 Corinthians 15:42-44; “So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” You will NOT be a clone or robot. You will still carry your unique bodily features and possess your unique personalities, but without sin. All forms of mortal imperfection and incompleteness shall be gone.

You shall be the same yet very different. Christ’s perfection; His holiness and His completeness shall be yours. Christ’s inability to sin will be your inability to sin. No more conflicts of interest or second guessing your decisions. Christ’s ability to glorify the Father shall be your ability to glorify the Father.

If you lack a sense of security when looking at the world, turn your eyes upon Jesus. If you want a hope that will lift your faith above the mockery of the unbelieving world, a hope that can overpower anxiety, a hope that will fill your entire being with expectation; then believe the promise of the returning resurrected Lord Jesus Christ!

I encourage you to embrace Jesus Christ who gives hope and certainty that lives past the grave.

 

Often relationships with fellow believers lack evidence of being empowered by God’s Spirit. This is a strange phenomenon because every regenerated child of God has been equally “called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:9). We should be in awe of what the Lord achieves in each other through spiritual rebirth at salvation. Sadly, this is not always the case.

When the apostle prayed for the “grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14), he asked for the very best of God for the Corinthians. Here is a good thermometer of spiritual health. Is God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit actively expressing themselves through your relationships? If not, you would do well to reconsider the reality of Jesus Christ as Lord in your life.

Now, Scripture gives clear principles for how to enrich fellowship with others through the example of the first generation believers. “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). The richest of fellowship occurs when God’s children have genuinely soft-hearted attitudes towards each other flowing out of authentic faith in Christ. Central to this is the mutual desire of all believers to spend time submissively sitting under the teaching of God’s Word together.

Worship and prayer are also the outcome of fellowship under God’s Word. There’s no self-seen here. Here we observe faithfulness and loyalty to both God and His people centred in Christ. The “breaking of bread” together has greater importance for believers when fellowship with Christ is experienced through the fellowship of the saints.

This means, following sound instruction in Scripture, you will not criticise, demean, judge or belittle your fellow believer. You see, if you “walk in the light, as he [Jesus] is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). When you are cleansed from sin, there will be no place for sin to worm its way into your relationships with your brother or sister in the Lord. Instead, you will rejoice in the intimacy of Christ centred oneness. Self should fade into insignificance as Christ is increasingly dominant. This is the foundation of unity in the Church.

When the Holy Spirit distributed gifts amongst believers, Paul observed that all were equally “empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills” (1 Corinthians 12:11). Every Christian is equally blessed with personalised spiritual abilities exactly as the Holy Spirit determined. No-one misses out, no-one is shown favouritism, and no-ones giftedness is more significant that anyone else’s.

However, so often God’s children get caught up with comparing one with another. Selfishness then damages the potential for sweet fellowship. Recognition of the spectacular working of God’s Spirit in His design and functionality of Christ’s body should secure every relationship. So what can overcome natural sinful compulsions which damage instead of enriching? The answer is humility!

You see, self detracts from Christ, and it estranges you from intimacy with others. “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3). Paul summed up Christ centred fellowship this way; “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21).

I encourage you to pursue fellowship empowered by God’s Holy Spirit.

Fellowship is a treasure which often gets taken for granted in the Christian life. It’s spoken of in the New Testament as the quality of spiritual partnership which participates with the other members. Benevolence is at its core; that is, intentional actions expressing kindness and good will to each other. The Greek language of the original New Testament speaks of fellowship (koinōnia) which participates in intimacy of a spiritually united relationship. Now that’s rather special in this dark world of selfish and temporary friendships.

This unnatural relationship begins with God who “is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:9). Notice that we didn’t initiate this relationship, but God graciously calls rebellious people to it based on His mercy. So, a believing sinner is called into the highest relationship imaginable through the Son of God. Establishing a surrendered faith dependent upon Jesus Christ as your Lord   is the starting point of God’s benevolence in your experience.

Fellowship and salvation

While salvation is the beginning of your new spiritual life; for God, your salvation was the culmination of His loving plans which He initiated before He made the world (Eph 1:4-5). The Lord pre-planned your adoption which is the fulfillment of His specific will for your life. You see, having an association with you, or even a friendship with you, was not good enough. No, God desired the very best of all relationships, and fellowship as a Father intimately engaged with His child was His goal for you.

This unimaginable spiritual connection God has made possible through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. Always remember that “you have been saved through faith. And this [faith] is not your own doing; it [faith] is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). From beginning to end, as a believer in Christ, you are never alone and you are never left to your own devices. God knows we lack the resources needed for this fellowship relationship, so He supplies them, and you experience them through faith in action (Jas 2:14-17).

Intentional fellowship

The beauty of fellowship is further seen through the intention of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for His children. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14). No believer is excluded from God’s loving desire for intimacy with them. However, there is responsibility for God’s children to respond appropriately to His grace. Regardless of life’s circumstances; nothing “in all creation will be able to separate us [you] from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39). His inseparable love means security, comfort, and peace for believers.

First generation Christians “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer” (Acts 2:42). In this single verse lays the essence of a healthy Christian life. Self is excluded. Dedication to actually attending the apostles’ teaching of God’s Word was primary to being able to experience the next blessing, fellowship. Intimacy of relationships in Church life grows out of members mutually sitting under the teaching of God’s Word with humble attitudes. This is foundational to authentic fellowship in the body of Christ.

I encourage you to embrace the blessing of fellowship. Draw from the Lord’s strength and determination in making whatever changes are needed to your daily and weekly routines which will grow genuine fellowship.