You know, I was amazed this morning when I got up. The sky was so clear—blue as I’ve seen it in a long time. It’s really great when the Lord can just clear the atmosphere, not only in the physical realm, but in our souls and in our life. Sometimes He does that.
I pray that today, as we’re together, the Lord will clear the atmosphere—that there will be a clear word as we share together this morning.
Last week I shared on being a friend of God, and today I want to share on being a friend to your brothers and sisters. Because many of our young people were away last week, and frankly, if you don’t get the friend-of-God part, what I’m sharing today is going to be meaningless. So, if you’ll bear with me a little bit, I want to do a slight amount of review for those who were not with us.
Lord, we are grateful, as we come to Thee this morning, that You have brought into our lives something new—something different from what we experience in this world. Lord, a new life, a new creation, a new way, a new atmosphere in our hearts.
Lord Jesus, sometimes the atmosphere of our hearts gets muddled, kind of like a heavy summer day when it’s really humid. But thank God, that cold, clear air flows into our soul. The Spirit of life quickens us.
We come this morning and pray for that quickening, that we might hear Your word. Lord, open these ears that are so hard to hear. Lord, open our eyes, because we need to see as well as hear.
Lord, we pray for the anointing, the outpouring of Your Holy Spirit, that it might be in the power and anointing of our Lord Jesus. We ask it in the name of our Lord. Amen.
Let us begin by reading John 15:12-17.
This is My commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Ye are My friends, if ye do the things which I command you.
No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known unto you.
Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it unto you.
These things I command you, that ye may love one another.
Now, Matthew 22:37.
A lawyer approached our Lord, trying to question Him, and he said, “Master, what is the greatest commandment?” Jesus said:
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the great and first commandment.
And a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
On these two commandments the whole law hangeth, and the prophets.
James 2:23 says:
And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God.
Abraham believed God. It was imputed to him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God.
The verse I was looking for is Ephesians 4:25:
Wherefore, putting away falsehood, speak ye truth each one with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.
In this matter of being friends, by way of review, last week I shared on being a friend of God. What we really need to see is that, first of all, in order to be a friend to your brother and sister, you have to be a friend of God.
More importantly, I wanted us to see that the whole relationship of being a friend is spiritual in nature and not merely earthly. Being a friend is possible because God is first your friend. In fact, the Lord is your eternal Friend.
He says in Scripture that He chose you even before the foundation of the world. We had the sentence of death upon us. We were already counted for judgment in God’s eyes, but the Lord looked down and said, “No, I have chosen these ones. They are My friends, and I am going to take their place in judgment.”
They were deserving of death. The condemnation of God was upon them. But He said, “I am not going to cast them away. They are My friends, and I am going to die for them on their behalf.”
The Lord says, “Greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for his friend.” So it was our Lord Jesus Christ who gave us this great example of laying down His life for His friends.
I shared on the life of Abraham, the only man in Scripture that I could find whom God actually called His friend. James confirms in the New Testament that God called Abraham His friend.
So, brothers and sisters, it is one thing for God to be our Friend. But are we His friends? Or is He just an acquaintance?
With an acquaintance—somebody you see occasionally—you just say, “Well, how are you doing?” You do not really want to know how they are doing, but you ask anyway to be polite. But with a real friend, when you ask how they are doing, you are concerned. You ask that question out of concern.
So this matter is important: are we a friend of God or merely an acquaintance?
I shared some on the life of Abraham to show what it means to be a friend of God, because Abraham was called the friend of God. James gives us the key: he believed God, and he obeyed God. That was the key.
The Lord said in John 15, “Ye are My friends, if ye do the things which I command you.” Abraham believed God because he was willing to give up Isaac on the altar because God asked him to do it.
We might say, “Well, Lord, I don’t know if I could ever be Your friend. I could never be like Abraham.” If we are honest, in a sense that is true. But brothers and sisters, Abraham was so much like us.
He was a worshiper of idols in the land of Chaldea. Tradition says his father may even have been a maker of idols. Yet God was able to stir Abraham’s heart. There was no reason why He should have been able to stir Abraham’s heart, but He did.
Brothers and sisters, somehow He was able to stir your heart. That is why you know Him today. He initiated that stirring in your heart.
We see in the life of Abraham that the God of glory appeared to him. One day the Lord appeared to you. You realized that He was your Savior, gave your heart and life to Him, and were born again in Jesus Christ. Then you went out to follow Him and obey Him.
What did God do in Abraham’s life? The first thing He wanted to do was separate Abraham from his old life, just as He challenges us to be separated from our old life.
Abraham went out. He obeyed, not knowing where he was going, but he went out based on the word of the Lord. Yet we find that Abraham’s obedience was not perfect, and his faith was not perfect. His father took him out. The Lord had asked him to leave his family and go out, but he could not fully do it, and his father could not let him go.
They went out together. His father led him and said, “I’ll take you to this promised land,” but they stopped short. They did not go all the way.
Brothers and sisters, his father Terah represents the old man—the old flesh trying to do the will of God. It cannot make it. It will always come up short and eventually settle down short of God’s purpose in your life.
If you are still living out of the old man in your life, it will not make it to the promised land. It will fall short. Abraham settled down for many years in Haran, short of God’s purpose.
But then his father passed away, and the Lord reappeared to Abraham. He moved on. He obeyed God and continued in that obedience, even though it had been delayed for many years.
He went into Egypt, though God did not ask him to go into Egypt. He went there on his own and got into trouble because he tried to fool the king into thinking that his wife was really his sister. The king wanted his wife for his own, and that got pretty sticky. But the Lord delivered Abraham.
The point I made through all of this was that in Abraham’s life, we see that we are friends of God if we can trust and obey Him—if we obey His commands. Jesus Himself says, “Ye are My friends, if ye do the things which I command you.”
The Lord was so gracious to Abraham. Many times He delivered him. Abraham became helpless and unable to deliver himself, and the Lord just delivered him sovereignly.
Abraham’s faith was not perfected in his early days. He faltered in faith. But praise the Lord, there came a day, after this walk with God in his life, when the Lord tested Abraham and said, “Take thy only son Isaac, and sacrifice him to Me.”
Abraham believed God to the point that he believed God would raise Isaac from the dead, because Isaac was the promise. He had such faith and confidence in God at that point in his spiritual life that he could do this in obedience to God. But God stayed his hand. Abraham believed and obeyed.
Are we friends of God? We know He is our Friend. Brothers and sisters, if you do not somehow believe that God is your Friend, think about where you are. Even if you are in trouble right now, He is prepared to deliver you if you will just turn back to Him.
Abraham was settled down in Haran, apparently not planning to go any further. But God delivered him, spoke to him afresh, and he went on in the Lord. So, brothers and sisters, we should never give up because the Lord never gives up. He presses on, thank God.
What was the evidence that Abraham was a friend of God? The real evidence was that God was able to share His secrets with Abraham.
God shared two secrets with Abraham—probably more than that, but two that the Bible uses. These secrets were given to Abraham in type.
The first is clear in the New Testament. In John 8:56, Jesus said:
Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it, and was glad.
Abraham saw His day. When you read the Old Testament account, you do not see that plainly. The Lord of glory appeared to him, but what about Jesus—seeing the day that the Lord would come?
Brothers and sisters, it was worked out in type in Abraham’s life. After Abraham offered up Isaac and reflected on all that happened, somehow God was able to reveal that one day He would give up His own Son on the cross of Calvary on behalf of the world—on behalf of you and me.
He would take our place in death that we might be set free. Somehow Abraham was given revelation of Jesus’ day, the Lamb of God, and it says he was glad.
The second secret is found in Hebrews 11:9-10:
By faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
For he looked for the city which hath the foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God.
Nowhere in the Old Testament does it say this. In fact, all Abraham ended up with was two grave plots—one for his wife and one for himself. Yet it says he had seen a city.
We know from Revelation that there is one city that has foundations. It says that the city will come down from God as a bride adorned for the Lamb, for His Son. God is going to prepare this bride and present the church to His Son—a fully mature bride.
It was worked out in Abraham’s life in type when Abraham sent out Eliezer, his servant, to get a bride for Isaac. Remember, that bride was Rebekah.
So Abraham saw the city. He realized this matter of the bride, and it had to be by revelation. The Lord gave hints and types in the Old Testament, but the secret was not fully revealed for almost two thousand more years.
Yet around eighteen hundred to two thousand years ahead of time, the Lord had revealed His heart to Abraham: His Son was to be the Lamb, and His Son was going to have a wife—a city that had foundations.
That vision kept Abraham all his life. That is why he could live in that land all that time and not really see the great promises that God had promised and will fulfill in the millennial period. Abraham himself did not actually experience them except by faith. He saw them by faith, and he had them. He realized them.
True friendship is evidenced in the sharing of secrets. I challenged us: have we merely heard about these secrets, or has God truly revealed them in the depths of our heart? These two secrets are what consume God’s heart: His Son and a bride for His Son.
Brothers and sisters, there is a far, far difference between doing things for God and doing things with Him as your Friend. Is He your Friend? Yes, He is. He is committed to you. Are we committed to Him?
John 15:15 says:
No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known unto you.
You see, He wants to make known to you the secrets of His heart.
What I have to share today has to do not only with being a friend of God, but with being a friend to your brothers and sisters. In Matthew 22:37, we read that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. The second is to love your neighbor as yourself.
In other words, the vertical relationship has to be right before this horizontal relationship of loving your neighbor as yourself can be carried out.
In the Greek, the word used for “neighbor” in Matthew 22:37 is the same word used in Ephesians 4:25, which says, “Speak truth each one with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.”
To be members with our neighbor means that this person must be in the body of Christ. This is specifically speaking about your neighbor as your brother or sister in Jesus Christ.
In other words, we not only must love the Lord; we must love the brethren.
Now, the love I am talking about is not human love, but spiritually natural love. It comes naturally.
The Scripture says that when we accept the Lord Jesus Christ, there should be within our spirit the cry, “Abba, Father.” There should be that sense that you have been accepted by the Father. That sense should be within you.
It also says in Scripture that the love of the brethren is there and natural. It should be a natural part of us. When we accept Jesus Christ, something happens within us. There is that sense that we are His, and that love is spiritually natural.
If we have truly accepted the Lord, there should be that same sense when you get around a brother or sister: indeed, this is a brother or sister in the Lord, and I love them.
Galatians 4:6 says:
And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Then 1 John 3:14 says:
We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not abideth in death.
This is an interesting thought. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. A lot of times we wonder about a person’s faith—whether they really believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is sometimes hard to discern whether a person is truly a Christian.
But John gives us a barometer, so to speak. He says that if you have passed out of death into life, you will love the brethren. It will be natural. You will not have to struggle with it. There is that natural love for the brethren.
Now, I have to say this, and I do not want to weaken anyone’s faith here: if today you are sitting here and tell me that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and that you are His, but you have no sense of love for the brothers and sisters, there is a problem.
There is a good chance that such faith is only knowledge—mental knowledge, religious faith—and not real faith. Loving the brethren is evidence that you have real faith in the Lord.
It is the evidence of faith. It is the evidence that you have passed out of the realm of death into the realm of life, because that life automatically quickens you. There should be that sense of love for your brothers and sisters—not only for the Lord, but for your brothers and sisters.
This is God’s love that He gives to you. It is given to you. But brothers and sisters, we are responsible to nurture that love—not only our love for God, but our love for the brothers and sisters.
How do we nurture our love with the Lord? It is through communion. Communion is absolutely necessary. When our communion with the Lord is lacking, our love weakens, does it not?
We have all experienced periods in our lives when we did not spend time with the Lord because we were so busy, and it weakened our love. Then, thank God, somehow He wakens us up. We turn back to Him, return to Him, and our love is strengthened once again. That is through communion.
For our brothers and sisters, it is fellowship. Communion has to come first, but with our brothers and sisters, what must be nurtured is fellowship. We have to have fellowship.
Without fellowship, our love for our brothers and sisters will weaken and grow cold. Without fellowship, we begin to think mainly about ourselves, and that is pretty self-destructive, is it not?
When our minds are always on us, our problems, and our circumstances, it is really a killer. It saps our life. But if we can come into fellowship with a brother or sister who may have just a simple word in due season, a simple word of encouragement, it strengthens us.
Fellowship is critical. We live in a day today—and it is so grieving to me—when some brothers and sisters whom I know and love feel that they do not need fellowship. They think all they need is their life with the Lord. They no longer need their brothers and sisters in fellowship. It is deadly. It is death.
Oh, brothers and sisters, I pray that God will show us how critical both communion and fellowship are.
First John 3:16 says:
Hereby know we love, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
What does that mean? It means that you need to give yourself to the Lord, but we also have to give ourselves to our brothers and sisters. Now, that is not always easy.
It is much easier, in a sense, to give ourselves to the Lord. Really, walking the way of the cross is difficult. But giving ourselves to our brothers and sisters is what we are asked to do: to strengthen them, to be before the Lord, perhaps that He will give you a word in due season for another brother or sister.
Maybe there is something in your life that He is working in, working specifically with you on, which one day in the future He will use to encourage a brother or sister.
Laying down our lives for the brothers and sisters is critical. If we are not laying down our lives for the brothers and sisters, I guarantee you, we are not laying down our lives for the Lord.
First John 3:18 says:
My little children, let us not love in word, neither with the tongue; but in deed and truth.
You have heard the old saying, “A brother in deed is a brother indeed.” Did you get it? A brother who exhibits deeds toward you, who really helps you, is a brother indeed—not just in word, but in deed.
In a sense, it is easy to love God, is it not? After all, He died for you. He gave His all for you. He gave His Son. You did not deserve it. He did it because He loved you. He forgives you.
There are many people who will not forgive you. I think we have probably all run into situations in life where a person has not been willing to forgive us. But the Lord is faithful and just to forgive you.
God is faithful and just to forgive you when you confess your sin because Christ has died for you. Because Christ has died, He is just to forgive you. And it says not only that He is just, but that He is faithful. That means He always will.
Sometimes we take advantage of that, do we not? We have to be careful, brothers and sisters. We know He is faithful to forgive us; therefore, sometimes we are a little lax in our behavior. Let us not take advantage of His great love.
He was despised and rejected on the cross of Calvary. I was thinking yesterday, when the pope died, of the hundreds of thousands of people praying and recognizing who that man was. I could not help but think of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
How many were there—thousands and multitudes of crowds around the cross? No. When our Lord Jesus died, He was despised and rejected. There were only a few there: some of the women, and John was the only disciple there. They had forsaken our Lord.
When He died on Calvary’s cross, just before He died, He said:
Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.
What forgiveness! We love Him because He loves us. Because He loves us so much, our heart responds back in love to Him. We want to serve Him, and in the power of His love, we are able to respond and follow Him. He becomes our Friend.
But our brothers and sisters are so difficult, are they not? Go ahead—you can smile. We are difficult people. After all, we are not like God. We are flawed. We have our flaws, and goodness, we are full of problems.
When you look around, you do not have to look hard. All you see is flesh, is it not? It is just overwhelming—the flesh in all of us. We look at a brother or sister and think, “Man, he has got problems. Do I really want to get involved with this brother or sister?”
Some are downright irritating. Let us be honest. There are some you get with, and you do not know what it is, but they just irritate you.
“After all, they really do not love me. In fact, they ignore me most of the time. If they give me any thought at all, it is usually a piece of their mind. We do not have any common interests. They do not understand me. They are disagreeable. They will not listen. I will just keep my distance.”
Is that our response? Getting involved with them and their lives is disappointing, discouraging, depressing.
“Oh, do not get me wrong. There are a few I can relate to. We see eye to eye. We enjoy similar things. We value the same things. We just click. They are concerned about me. They listen. They even agree with me. I care for these ones and I love them.”
“The rest I avoid as much as possible, though I do not want to offend them either.”
Now, I have kind of exaggerated a little bit. But brothers and sisters, that is the way we are. We think we can choose who we will be friends with in the body of Christ. We think it is something we can select.
This principle may be true in the world, but not in the body of Christ. One of the first principles we need to learn in the body of Christ, in being a friend to your brothers and sisters, is that you do not choose and select whom you will fellowship with.
God selects. God chooses. We must lay down our lives for all our brothers and sisters.
Let us read 1 Corinthians 12:18-27.
But now hath God set the members each one of them in the body, even as it pleased Him.
And if they were all one member, where were the body?
But now they are many members, but one body.
And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee: or again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
Nay, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary:
And those parts of the body, which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness; whereas our comely parts have no need: but God tempered the body together, giving more abundant honor to that part which lacked;
That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.
And whether one member suffereth, all the members suffer with it; or one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
Now ye are the body of Christ, and severally members thereof.
God sets. There should be no division based on preferring one above another. There should be the same care for one another.
It is the Lord who determines where you fit in the body. It is the Lord who determines whom you will relate to, whom you will care for, and whom you will love. It is every member of the body of Christ.
But He does set you in specific relationships. Obviously, I am a member with the brothers and sisters in Taiwan and in Matata, where I was recently. But you are the ones I am close to. The Lord has set that. It is God’s divine appointment.
The body of Christ is a reality, and that is what we have to grasp. It is not a spiritual ideal. It must be manifest on this earth. We have to have the reality of this body of Christ manifest on this earth.
Do we really see what God did at Pentecost, brothers and sisters? I think that becomes the real key.
At Pentecost, one hundred and twenty believers gathered together in an upper room. Previously, the Lord had appeared to five hundred. He said, “I want you to gather together for prayer for ten days.” But only one hundred and twenty responded.
These were the ones with the most heart, the most spiritual. They were together. They were believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they were all in one place. But brothers and sisters, here is the point: they were not yet the body of Christ.
They were individual parts. They were together, they were meeting together, but they had not yet been set in place. They had not yet been joined together spiritually in Christ.
They were great individual believers. They loved one another, and they could even pray in one accord. What a great congregation! But they were not the living, organic body of Jesus Christ.
But praise the Lord, our Lord ascended to the throne, and God anointed Him. The Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Head, and that anointing came down.
They already had the indwelling Holy Spirit, but the outpoured Holy Spirit came upon them. It flowed down upon those one hundred and twenty believers, and the Holy Spirit joined them together. He fused them together into the body of Jesus Christ, and He fused this body to the Head.
It became one entity, one person. The Head and the body became one. God placed each member exactly where He wanted them in His body. He had made the decision, and the Holy Spirit brought about this fusion, this joining together.
A birth had taken place. The church was born that day by the Holy Spirit.
I want to be really clear today, because we have heard things to the contrary recently. Man can never do this. Man can never create the church. Man can never organize the church.
Man thinks he can select a pastor, appoint some deacons and elders, and then he has a church. All he has to do is have some church order along with it, and it is a great church. But I want to say today that that is just not true.
We have heard about planting churches—churches being planted here and there. Scripturally, that is incorrect. A church is not planted. A church is not a plant.
Christ is the seed, no doubt about it, falling into the earth, and fruit comes out of that. But the church, brothers and sisters, is not planted anywhere. It is not an organization of men. It is an organism, and it has to be born. It has to be birthed.
It has to be birthed through travail. That is what these one hundred and twenty believers were doing. They were travailing in prayer.
Remember Adam. Think about it. The process is so similar. When God decided to create Adam, He took the clay of the earth. That is all those one hundred and twenty believers were—the dust of the earth.
He formed it into the shape of a man, and it says that He breathed the breath of life into Adam, and he became a living soul. That is what happened at Pentecost.
Those one hundred and twenty believers were together, and the word of God says there was a rushing wind. In Greek, the description is like a heavy breathing—heavy breathing like a woman in travail.
The Holy Spirit moved. He fused those one hundred and twenty together and breathed life upon them. They became the body of Jesus Christ. The church was birthed. The church was born.
It was a living body of Jesus Christ, evidenced by the Holy Spirit’s work, by tongues of fire, by the energy of the Holy Spirit.
Brothers and sisters, I want to be so clear: this is the testimony of this fellowship.
Usually I do not like to share on these things, but I feel constrained to do so this morning. In the beginning, there were four sisters who had gone to a conference where Watchman Nee, T. Austin-Sparks, and I think Stephen, were there, perhaps with some others.
When they came away from that conference, those sisters saw something. They saw that the Lord was after a testimony of the body of Jesus Christ—of the Lord Himself on this earth—and that we had to be together.
Brothers and sisters had to be together not based on a creed, doctrine, or person, but around the Lord Jesus Himself.
The ground upon which they would stand was the ground of the church: we cannot be separated by these things. You may have a different doctrine, but if you are the Lord’s, you are mine, and we are together. You belong to the Lord; you belong to me.
That is the ground of the church. That is the testimony of the church, brothers and sisters: we are one in Jesus Christ. We may hold different beliefs, but that should not separate us.
That is one of the most difficult testimonies to maintain. But these sisters came back, and the Lord burdened their hearts. Do you know they prayed for four years that somehow the Lord would raise up a testimony?
After a period of time, our brother Stephen came down and began to share the word of God, the eternal purpose of God, and what was on God’s heart. That continued for many years.
During that period, my brother would come down—I think he was in New York at the time. He would fly down from New York, and I wanted to ask him, “Why in the world would you fly all the way down from New York to be with four or five sisters once a month?” He said, “The Lord told me to.”
Others began to gather together. Early in 1970, I believe it was—is that right, Kenny?—the Lord had been working. The Holy Spirit had been moving. He moved in Kenny’s heart. He was a new believer.
I remember Kenny one day saying, “Jerry, it’s just Christ. It’s all Christ.” The Lord had revealed Himself to my brother in such a tremendous way. It was revolutionary to his life.
To me, the Lord was saying, “Jerry, what is the church?” I had a question in my heart that could not be answered. Our dear brother Michael Woods had preceded us by about one month, and he had been to those meetings. He said, “I’m home.”
The Lord began to move. What was so miraculous was that when Kenny and I went there that first night, Stephen actually shared on Pentecost—the birth of the church. When he shared that the church was an organism and not an organization, the Lord just came down on me. I saw. I have not been the same since.
Then we began to pray together: “Lord, should we join together to be a testimony of the Lord, to stand for what the church is in Your eyes?”
After a while, we began to feel that, yes, that was what the Lord was saying. Some might think Stephen just came down, appointed a few leading brothers, and that was it. That is not how it happened at all.
As brothers, we were very, very reluctant. I remember Stephen coming to us when we had been meeting together for a while. He said, “Your brothers and sisters have taken quite a responsibility. It is time for you brothers to begin to take some responsibility.” That is all he said. He did not say, “I appoint you an elder,” or anything like that.
He said, “I do not know what the Lord is going to do with you brothers—whether you are to be leaders or not—but you need to step out.” That created quite a stir.
But the point is, brothers and sisters, I want you to know this: the Holy Spirit birthed it. It was not set up. It was not organized by man.
Oh, we need to be so clear on this. How precious is the body of Christ to our Lord! It was birthed. Ephesians says that He gave His life for the church.
We know that He gave His life for us, do we not? But Ephesians says that He gave His life for the church and died for her.
The church was birthed, not organized. Even today, brothers and sisters, you cannot simply go somewhere and plant a church. The Holy Spirit has to move. There needs to be travailing.
In fact, not only did those one hundred and twenty travail; the Lord Himself travailed on the cross. After He died and the spear was put in His side, John said that blood and water came out.
Brothers and sisters, that is the beginning of the church: the blood and water that came out of the side of our Lord Jesus Christ—the blood for the remission of sins, and the water for life that was to come forth for this living body of Jesus Christ.
So, brothers and sisters, we are not just a congregation of saints. We are not just a congregation. We are the body of Christ. We are no longer merely individual believers.
We have individual responsibility, but we are the body of Jesus Christ.
If I go to the junkyard, pick up a transmission, a motor, a rear end, wheels, axles, headlights, bumpers, and all these parts of a car, and dump them on your front lawn, do you have a car? No. All you have are the parts.
But if somehow you have the skill and the energy to put all those parts together, then you have the form of a car. But put gasoline in it and turn the ignition on, and that car comes alive—the roar of the engine.
That is what happened at Pentecost. Those individual parts were brought together, born together. The Holy Spirit breathed on them, and they became alive. The church was born.
First Corinthians 12:13 explains what happened at Pentecost:
For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit.
When we accept the Lord Jesus Christ, the indwelling Holy Spirit comes in. We need to know the indwelling Spirit, but there is also the outward anointing that comes—the outpoured Holy Spirit. We need to know both in our lives.
It was the anointing that came, just as it came upon the one hundred and twenty. That anointing quickens you into the body of Jesus Christ, and you become a living member of the body of Jesus Christ.
You may not know that is what has happened. You may not sense any experience, but that is what has happened. You may not even believe that is what has happened, but it has happened anyway.
We should, in faith, believe that we are under the anointing and take our place in the body of Christ, not as outsiders, because it is Christ who sets you in the body of Jesus Christ.
We are not only joined to Christ, brothers and sisters. We not only have a relationship with Christ; we have a relationship with, and are joined to, each other.
Not only must we learn and know the life of the Lord; we must learn and know the life of the body. We cannot live without the Head, Jesus Christ. But I am going to say this: you cannot live without the body.
If you love the Head, you must love the body.
Let me put this in perspective. Think about your husband or wife. Do you just love their head? No, you do not think of your husband or wife in those terms. Your love is for the whole person—the whole being, the body as well as the head.
What is a head without a body? Pretty lifeless. It cannot express itself, that is for sure. What is a body without a head? It also is pretty lifeless. It has no direction. It does not know what it is doing and cannot coordinate itself.
I remember, as a young boy, going to see my grandmother. This may be a little gruesome, so if it is too gruesome, hold your ears. We loved fried chicken, and in those days you did not go to the store and buy chicken. You got them from the backyard.
You wrung the chicken’s neck, and that chicken would run around the yard for ten or fifteen minutes. It did not have its head anymore. That is pretty gruesome.
But brothers and sisters, think about it. That is what we are doing to Christ when we do not consider the body: a headless body. We have to have a relationship with the Head and with the body.
If we encourage a member of the body, we have encouraged the Head. If we offend a member of the body, we have offended the Head. It is that simple.
If you offend your wife, she is offended. If you offend your husband, he is offended. If you offend the Lord or His body, He is offended.
We are so closely connected. Have you ever thought about what happens when you stub your toe? Does the rest of your body remain the way it is and say, “Well, I am sorry, toe, you got hurt. Hope you get better soon”?
No. You immediately start jumping up and down on the other foot. You grab that toe and hang on for dear life. You do your best to squeeze and do everything else to try to get the pain to subside.
That is what happens in the body of Christ. When any member is hurt, the pain goes out throughout the whole body, and the other members are put into action to try to help and assist.
It is impossible for something to occur or happen to a member of the body of Christ and not affect the entire body.
Remember Paul on the Damascus road. I think this is one of the best examples. When the Lord appeared to Paul, He said, “Paul, it is hard for thee to kick against the goads. I have been pressing you. I have been pricking you. You are struggling, and it is hard for you.”
Did He say, “Paul, why are you persecuting My followers?” Did He say, “Why are you persecuting My disciples?” No. He said, “Paul, why art thou persecuting Me?”
Paul had touched the body of Christ; therefore, he had touched the Head. They were one.
The first great principle is this: you do not choose. The Lord Jesus sets you in the body, and these members are your friends. You should lay down your life for them.
Second Corinthians 5:16 says:
Wherefore we henceforth know no man after the flesh: even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know Him so no more.
The second principle in being a friend in the body of Christ is that our relationship is spiritual in nature. It is not fleshly in nature. We know each other through the Spirit.
We should desire to know each other in that way and not just through the flesh. Often, brothers and sisters, our weakness is that all we see is the flesh, or all we communicate with one another is flesh and not spirit.
What had happened to the disciples? They were with the Lord for three years. They knew Him after the flesh, right? They were with our Lord, but did they really know Him?
No. We find them even at the Lord’s table, right before He was crucified, arguing about who was going to be the greatest—who was going to be number one. This is earthly. This is flesh, brothers and sisters.
But after our Lord was raised from the dead, how those disciples changed! They were in a new realm. They were new creations. They operated in a new way and on new principles.
That principle is that our fellowship is in the Spirit. We share life with one another. We share Christ with one another.
Yes, we can share about other things, but ultimately, if our life is right with the Lord, these other things tie into the life of the Lord. We share with one another how the Lord has helped us, how He has ministered to us, and what He has done.
Or we may share with one another, “I am in serious trouble, and I do not know how to get out.” Then a brother or sister, somehow by the grace of God through the Spirit, is able to help.
We have to learn to walk in that life. First John 1:7 says:
But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
That is our fellowship. What is our fellowship? First John 1:3 says:
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also, that ye also may have fellowship with us: yea, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
In other words, we can fellowship what we see and know of the Lord Jesus. That is our fellowship. We need to learn fellowship. We need to look to the Lord for the Lord in one another. Our relationship is based on spirit, not on flesh.
Brothers and sisters, we have to be so careful. Sometimes all we can see are faults in one another. We should be looking for the Spirit in one another—the Lord in one another.
This does not mean we cannot talk or share about everyday things. But when we do, somehow the life of the Lord comes into it. Neither does it mean that we are to be cold and without feelings.
Paul, in 1 Corinthians 16, speaking of Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus, said, “They refreshed my spirit.” In 2 Timothy, he called Timothy “my own son in the faith” and “my dearly beloved son.”
Concerning Epaphroditus, Paul said he was sick unto death, but God had mercy on him, and on Paul also, lest he should have sorrow upon sorrow. You see Paul’s heart.
In 2 Corinthians 2:13, Paul said, “I had no relief for my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother.” In 2 Corinthians 7:5-6, he said:
For when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no relief, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears.
Nevertheless He that comforteth the lowly, even God, comforted us by the coming of Titus.
You see how close we are to one another. It does not mean our relationship with every brother and sister is the same. Some relationships will be deeper in the Spirit than others.
Paul had a relationship with both Titus and Timothy. He called them both his sons, most likely because he had brought them to the Lord. But in his last hour, it was Timothy to whom he wrote. He was closer to Timothy, and he gave his last will and testament to Timothy:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.
The third principle is that our relationship has to be through the Head. In the body of Jesus Christ, it is no longer just two in a relationship. There are three: you, your friend, and the Lord.
You, your friend, and the Lord. There are not two, but three. Our relationship needs to be through the Head.
Otherwise, if it is one-on-one without the Lord Jesus Christ, our relationship becomes exclusive. It becomes a clique, and it becomes a sect. It is actually disruptive to the body of Christ.
That is why Paul spoke to the Corinthians so sternly. They were dividing into little groups based on whose ministry they liked best. He said it was a sect.
Fourthly, body life is not optional. Do we relate to one another as brothers and sisters as if it is optional? Do we think our gathering together is optional?
Do we gather together only as it suits our needs? If you have seen the body of Jesus Christ, you know, brothers and sisters, this life is not optional. If it is, it is poor.
If we fellowship with the Lord only as it suits our needs, as sometimes we do, that is a poor Christian existence, is it not? It is the same with the body of Jesus Christ.
If we only come to the Lord when we are in trouble or crisis, it is a poor relationship. If we only fellowship with the brothers and sisters when we really get in trouble and need their help, that is a poor relationship. You are always taking but not giving.
Fifthly, love is the way of the body. I will be quick.
In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul shares on the body of Jesus Christ, and that is immediately followed by chapter 13. You all know that is the chapter on love. He says, “I show unto you a still more excellent way.”
So the way of the body is love. Practically, we must humble ourselves, submitting ourselves to one another. Practically, we must forgive one another.
Matthew 6:15 says:
But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Brothers and sisters, one of the most damaging things in the body of Christ is a lack of forgiveness. If you find yourself not forgiving a brother or sister, beware.
We should not come to the judgment seat of Christ unable to forgive a brother or sister. I do not think that will be a joyous time. He is very emphatic: if you do not forgive your brother or sister, I will not forgive you.
I do not know exactly how He will handle that, but He is very emphatic.
Thirdly, practically, we must wash one another’s feet. Our Lord Jesus, when He finished the Lord’s Supper, being the Lord and Master of all, the King of kings, got down on His knees, took a towel and a basin, and washed the disciples’ feet.
Brothers and sisters, we are called to wash one another’s feet. We should be willing to get down on our knees.
What is washing feet? It is refreshing. The washing of the feet was just a refreshing, a little cleaning up, a word in due season.
It is saying, “Brother, I have been thinking about you. I have been praying. I just want you to know that.” Sometimes that is a tremendous encouragement—washing one another’s feet.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord is your Friend. Are you His friend? The Lord is your Friend, and all your brothers and sisters are His friends. Are you their friend?
May the Lord touch our hearts. I was particularly burdened that we see the reality of the body of Christ. We cannot ignore what the Lord has done. We cannot ignore our friends, our brothers and sisters.
Lord, we come to Thee today. Lord, I just pray that whatever is on Your heart for today, for each brother and sister, will remain. Lord, the rest can go. We just give it into Your hands. Lord, quicken as You would.
Lord, we are grateful today that we have a relationship with You because You have chosen us. Lord, we have a relationship with our brothers and sisters because of this miraculous work of Pentecost and the cross.
We thank You for both relationships. In Jesus’ name.