Well, good morning.
A little bit of echo, huh? Is that better? Still a little bit of echo. While he’s fixing the echo, I think it’s amazing that it was 73 degrees yesterday, and they’re talking about another snow event tonight. I’m about done with winter. But it’s pretty amazing to have the privilege of another snow event.
I would like us to read just a few verses as we come. First Corinthians 10:16. I think you know this verse, but this is what we just did, as a matter of fact, in the Lord’s Table.
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of the Christ, or the fellowship of the blood of the Christ?
The bread which we break, is it not the communion, or the fellowship, of the body of the Christ?
Because we, being many, are one loaf, one body; for we all partake of that one loaf.
Then another two verses you’re familiar with, I know, in Ephesians 1:22-23. Speaking of the Lord Jesus:
And has put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things to the assembly, or church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Then just two more verses: First Corinthians 12:12-13.
For even as the body is one, and has many members, but all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ.
For also in the power of one Spirit, we have all been baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bondmen or free, and have all been given to drink of one Spirit.
And then the closing of that section, First Corinthians 12:27. I would like you to focus on this word: now.
Now ye are Christ’s body, and members in particular.
Now ye are Christ’s body, and members in particular.
Let’s pray.
Lord, we are so thankful we have Your Word to come to. We’re so thankful that Your Word tells us that Your words are spirit and life. How we need those words. How we want this morning to hear words that are spirit and life.
We come to You in dependence again, once again, and say, like Peter said on that day when so many were offended, so many turned back because they thought the words were too hard: “To whom shall we go? To whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life.”
Would You speak to us? Would You be gracious? You have made the greatest descension of all times when You descended and came to this earth, and when You were God with us. But now, Lord, we ask You to once again descend and be with us and speak to us in Your Word, that we may hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
For we ask in the precious name of our beloved Lord Jesus, and for His sake. Amen.
Well, I think by now you know that we’ve been sharing on this matter of fellowship. We have said it is a vast theme. As a matter of fact, I think it’s so vast that it will take a lifetime to discover what this issue of fellowship really means—how much is involved in this issue of fellowship.
As a matter of fact, I believe it will take an eternity to discover the fullness of what fellowship is. So, in just these—this being the fourth time I’ve shared—we’re only scratching the surface of fellowship. But I hope you will at least take some of the things that have been shared and go back and meditate and consider, in your own times, how vast this subject is and what the Lord has given us by opening to us this fellowship with God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
I won’t tire of saying that and repeating that quote by our brother T. Austin-Sparks. I think it’s a very good quote. He said, “Fellowship—that is a deep and inexhaustible matter—fellowship with God.” And he paused, and he said again, “Fellowship with God. It is a deep and inexhaustible matter.”
Now, you know we’ve been sharing. This is the fourth time, and I believe it will be the last time. The first time was on fellowship experienced at the Lord’s Table. We’ve done that already today.
Our time at the Table should not just be some sort of ritual thing we do week in and week out, but it should be a real, living experience of the fellowship that we have with God the Father and God the Son at this Table. It is the very experience of fellowship.
This cup that we take, is it not the blessing, the communion, the fellowship of the blood of the Lord Jesus? This bread which we eat, is it not the blessing, the communion? This is a blessing we come to.
We touched upon a few things from the early church about how the very purpose of their gathering was this matter of the breaking of the bread on the Lord’s Day. They came together on the first day of the week for that intention, for that purpose. They knew so much of what this experience was at the Lord’s Table. It was the cause of their coming together at the beginning of their week, and it was the purpose of their gathering.
We talked about preparation, you may remember. I don’t think we should forget that, brothers and sisters. Preparation is vital when it comes to experiencing fellowship at the Lord’s Table. If you come unprepared, without any time to set your heart right and reflect and be in the Lord’s presence, it will be less than an experience of fellowship. So, preparation is very important.
And we talked about the practice of our gathering—how we ought to come and partake. But a main part of what you see in the Scriptures is the participation of the saints: how they entered in, how they gave their part, and each one had a song, had a hymn, and had a word.
This is what we ought to do. We ought to participate when we come, and it should not just be a few. The participation ought to be full and more than just a few.
The second time, we talked about ultimate fellowship. I really prayed about what word might at least help me express this vast subject of fellowship, and I shared that phrase: ultimate fellowship.
It had more to do with this privilege and the purpose that we have. What a privilege. What an ultimate privilege. What an ultimate purpose: that God is faithful, who has called us into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
He had to pay the ultimate cost so that we might be able to live in that fellowship. He Himself, who had never known broken fellowship, on the cross experienced utter darkness and broken fellowship with the Father so that you may never experience broken fellowship. That’s the ultimate cost.
We talked about the provision—the ultimate provision. Not only did He call us into fellowship and leave us at our own devices, but He put within us His own divine life. What an ultimate provision we have: that we can live this Christian life not because of our own resources, our own talents, or our own effort, but by the hope of glory that is in us, which is Christ in us. That’s the ultimate privilege.
Then we talked about the ultimate purpose. I love that phrase in the King James Version, Ephesians 3:9-10, where it talks about the fellowship of the mystery. God finally, in His heart, opened up something when the Lord Jesus came, and when revelation was given to His own, of something that was ultimately in God’s heart for all of eternity.
So much so, in one place they use this phrase: the eternal purpose. This was according to the eternal purpose of God. He opened to us the fellowship of the mystery.
Then last time, I know some of you may remember, we talked about divine fellowship. I was picking on myself a bit in that message. We sometimes think fellowship is anything we do as long as it is with Christians. Well, that’s not true.
Fellowship is actually the sharing of the Lord Jesus, sharing in common the Lord Jesus. Now, when we’re with believers and when we’re with Christians, we should have fellowship, but it does not mean everything we do—social, business, or otherwise—is fellowship.
Actually, I looked for another word, and the word the Lord laid on my heart was divine fellowship. It is divine. It is the Lord Jesus. It is His life. It is sharing His life.
We read in 1 John about how this fellowship is with the Father and with the Son, and it is in the Spirit. This fellowship has a twofold aspect. John uses this phrase in 1 John: “fellowship with Him.” He also uses this phrase in the next verse, separately linked from it: “fellowship with one another.”
So, this fellowship—this divine fellowship—has two aspects: vertical with God and horizontal with one another. Unless we’re experiencing both aspects of that fellowship, we’re not experiencing divine fellowship.
I hear people all the time, and I know you do too, talk about their fellowship with God. And you should have fellowship with God. You have to have fellowship with God. But unless we have fellowship with one another, it is not full fellowship.
John used three very vital words: life, light, and love, to describe this fellowship. It is not your light; it is His light. The psalmist said, “In Your light we see light.” It is not your life; it is His life.
As a matter of fact, John uses a particular phrase. He calls it the eternal life. It is the life that is in the Son. And he goes on to say, “He who has the Son has the life. If you do not have the Son, you do not have the life.”
It is divine light, divine life, and divine love. Thirty-two times, overwhelmingly in those five short chapters, John shared about love. It was not our love. It is agape love. It is His love. It is divine love.
Ultimately, that love and that life are to be manifested through us, and they will be the confirming or condemning evidence as to whether we’re in the fellowship or not. That’s why John says over and over, “We know that we’ve passed from death to life if we have love for the brethren.”
It is not our effort to love the brethren. It is the divine love manifested in us to the brethren that is evidence that we’re in the fellowship. It says, if we love the world, we do not love God. That is condemning evidence.
But if we love one another, we know. Because how can we love God, whom we do not see, and not love the brethren, whom we see? We know. That phrase occurs.
So, that’s what we shared. Today, we’re going to share on fellowship expressed, because I think ultimately we can sort of talk about these things, and they can become more head knowledge.
Ultimately, if you let me borrow that word again, fellowship is to be expressed. In the end, it is to be expressed. It is not just to be known about. It is not just to be talked about. It is not just to somehow have Bible studies about. It is to be expressed in time and in space among those that know the Lord Jesus.
This is what fellowship is to be. An amazing thing. I would like to just sort of go at it this way.
When the Lord Jesus came to earth, it was an amazing thing. I think you acknowledge that. The Lord Jesus was compressed into human form, if I can use that word—compressed into human form. What I think is the ultimate limitation. I cannot imagine a greater limitation.
When you read the words that in Him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, somehow the Lord Jesus was God among us. That is amazing to me. He was compressed into this form.
I think it was Brother Mac during the meeting who read in Philippians 2:7. Maybe it would be good if we turned to that. I think it was you, Mac, right?
This is speaking of the Lord Jesus. Begin in verse 6:
Who, subsisting in the form of God, did not esteem it an object of repine to be on equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking a bondman’s form, taking His place in the likeness of men; and, having been found in figure as a man, humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross.
Listen to this. It is an extraordinary thought: “Having been found in figure as a man.” God Almighty, Emmanuel—God with us—humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross.
Now, it is not being made in the fashion of man. As Brother Darby puts it in his notes, it is becoming, because He became something He was not. This God of glory, this Almighty God who made everything, and everything holds together by Him—and all the fullness of the Godhead bodily is in Him—was compressed into this human form.
I find that so difficult to take in. Yet it was God’s very purpose that in that compressed and limited form, He expressed His fullness. That is the secret.
It was not that He came in this extreme limitation and did not express who He was. If you read the Word of God very carefully, you begin to discover that in this ultimate limitation, He expressed all He was.
Look at John 1:14 with me, and I’ll try to convince you:
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we have contemplated His glory.
We saw His glory. It was not that this limited form that the Lord Jesus came in, becoming a man, veiled His glory to the point that we could not see it. But we beheld His glory, as of the only begotten with the Father, full of grace and truth.
Brothers and sisters, in this limited form, in this infinite limitation, if you will, in this limited vessel, we saw the full expression of what fellowship was. He walked on the earth in constant communion with the Father, and He was never without fellowship with the Father.
As a matter of fact, He made that glorious statement: “I am in the bosom of the Father.” Now, how could He be in the bosom of the Father if He was compressed into that human form and walking upon the earth? Because He knew what real fellowship was: unbroken, undivided, full fellowship.
And it was fully expressed in that limited form.
Look at the end of John’s Gospel. I think this is a verse we’ve often read, and I like this verse very much. John 21:24-25:
This is the disciple who bears witness concerning these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his witness is true.
And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they were written one by one, I suppose not even the world itself would contain the books written.
That is the fullness of the fellowship that He expressed in this. I hope you get this. I’m going to make a point until you get it, and I hope we remember it. In this limited human form, He expressed such fullness that even if all the things were written that He did and put in books, even the world itself could not contain those books.
You might think the Library of Congress is a big place, and it is a big place—all the books that are contained in there. But the apostle John made an extraordinary statement when he said even the world itself could not contain the books.
In other words, it was God’s purpose that in this limited form He came in to express the fullness of what fellowship was. That is what I want you to remember. It is a very important point, and if you miss this point, you’ll be lost the rest of the way. So please try to remember it, and it will help.
It was the severest limitation, and yet something tremendous happened. Look at Colossians 2:9. I think you know this verse. It may have been read this morning; I cannot remember.
For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
Listen to what is added to that: bodily. Brothers and sisters, the apostle could have left that last word off, and we would agree with it. We would say it is truth: “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead.”
As a matter of fact, often when I quote that verse, I stop there. But the mystery of it, the mystery of this fellowship expressed, was: “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Something was to be expressed in that limited form that was God’s ultimate purpose.
That is the first scene: when the Lord Jesus comes. The second scene is in the Book of Acts, and I believe you’ll see how the Lord is doing the same thing in our day.
Look at Acts 1:1. This is Luke, the physician, writing:
I composed the first discourse, O Theophilus, concerning all the things which Jesus began both to do and to teach.
Now, here is the point I want to make. The Lord Jesus, when He was on the earth—we’ll talk about Luke’s Gospel for a moment before we talk about the Book of Acts—expressed fellowship in the most limited form, and yet the fullness was expressed through His human body. That was what He did.
But in the second scene, in Luke’s Book of Acts, he shows how the Lord wants to continue to express Himself and express this fellowship. He chooses a spiritual body, and that body is the body of Christ.
In other words, in the Gospel of Luke, when the Lord walked upon the earth, He began to do and to teach. But when you come to the Book of Acts, in the body of Christ—His spiritual body, not His human body—He continues to do and to teach.
This is the mystery of fellowship. He chose to come in that limited form to show in that limited form all that He could express of Himself. He chose, in this second scene in the Book of Acts, another limited form—a spiritual body.
In this spiritual body, the church, the body of Christ, He chooses to express fullness in fellowship once again. Now, do you get it? The pattern is the same. First, it is in His human body. Then, it is in His spiritual body. That is the mystery of fellowship.
Out of all the things He could have chosen to express the fullness of fellowship, there could have been innumerable things we could think of. There could be heavenly hosts. There could be anything that we could imagine. But instead, He chose a human body, and then He chose a spiritual body. That is what fellowship expressed is.
Now, I happen to think that we are much more of a limitation to the Lord Jesus than His human body was. Somehow, in that compressed limitation, He was able to express the fullness of God. Somehow, we could see the glory of God, full of grace and truth.
But then, in this second scene, we see another choice of another body, and that body is the church, the body of Christ. It seems to me we limit the Lord far more than His human body actually did. It is, to me, the severest of limitations.
Yet, in God’s purpose, it is not to be. If you look at Ephesians 1, it is a verse we already read. Listen to what it says of the body:
And has put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things to the assembly, the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
That is what the church is to be. That is what the body of Christ is to be. It is to be the fullness of Him who fills all in all. He has on purpose chosen this vessel—His body, His spiritual body, in this second scene—to express fellowship in a way He has chosen no other vessel.
That is an extraordinary thought.
It reminds me of First Corinthians 15. I’m not going to read those verses for the sake of time. You know, in First Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul is talking about resurrection, and he shares a principle. He is talking about the human body, and he says, “First the natural, then the spiritual.” It is a principle.
We, for a very short time, have this natural body. But if we are the Lord’s, we will have a new body, and that new body is a spiritual body. We will have that spiritual body in the resurrection.
Well, he is laying down a principle. What he is saying to us is, “In My first appearing, I had a human body for a very short time, up until resurrection. But at resurrection, something changed. Now I have a different body. It is a spiritual body. It is the church. It is the assembly. It is the body of Christ, and I have chosen to express My fullness through this new and spiritual body.”
That is, to me, the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts: the difference between His first coming and His appearing to express fellowship through the body of Christ.
I think this is a tremendous thing. You may think this is too high. You may think this is something for the coming ages. You may think this is just too unreal, that the Lord Jesus would choose this vessel to be the vessel of expression of fellowship. But He did.
If you read Ephesians 3:9-10, which we’ve read before, it says:
And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God, who created all things in Jesus Christ: to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenlies might be made known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the purpose of the ages.
Now, listen carefully to this: “To the intent that now.” Take in that thought. Not only is it God’s intention that He would manifest what fellowship really is through the body, but that He would do it now. That is the difference.
This is an enormous word. It is not to wait until later. He has chosen this limited spiritual body to express who He is now.
I think we should be in awe at this. I think we should be caught up with worship that somehow the Lord of glory has chosen us to be the expression of this fellowship. I think it is almost too great to take in.
But if you read the Word and understand His purpose, you will see that it is true. This body of Christ is not to be some lifeless organization—or, even worse, sometimes we make it a label. But it is to be a living organism of the expression of the fullness that is only in the Lord Jesus.
Now, let me just share with you a little insight into the burden that is really on my heart. I think we need to see and enter into this expression of fellowship.
I think often we have, let me put it this way, a concept of the body of Christ, and we do not have a real consciousness of the body of Christ.
Many people, especially today, since the seventies or early before that probably, talk about the body of Christ endlessly. Much of it, if you think about it, is limited to a mental apprehension of what the body of Christ is.
My great fear is that we will just have a concept of what the body of Christ is, when I believe what we need to have—a true expression of fellowship—is a living consciousness of what the body of Christ is.
This thought came to me some time ago, and I remember I was thrilled when I read Brother Nee’s book, The Body of Christ: A Reality, because Brother Nee confirmed what was a witness in my heart: our problem is that we have a concept, and our problem is that we do not have a living consciousness.
If we had a living consciousness, it would be all different. It would be completely different.
Brother Nee said this: “All who know the life of the body of Christ will have a consciousness of the body of Christ. If you really have seen the body, you cannot but have a consciousness, because the life in you, being a reality and in experience, cannot fail to show forth that consciousness.”
We need a living consciousness. He said, “The most distinctive expression of life is consciousness.” You know, if you are not conscious, you are dead.
I remember back with Linda, that day they came to me in the hospital and said, “She is no longer conscious.”
It is one of those talks when the doctor comes and sits you down and looks at you across the table. He hesitates, and you wonder, and he tells you there is no response.
But I remember her telling me she was conscious. They were picking at her toes. They were pushing on her. They were saying to her, “Do you hear us? Do you hear us?” And she told me she thought she was talking to them, but they could not hear her.
She had a consciousness. Finally, they kept trying. They would bring up the heart specialist, and they would bring up the pulmonary specialist, and they would bring up this specialist, leaving me in the room.
Then they came to her, and firmly they said, “Will, are you there? Are you there? And will you respond?” And she said, “Maybe I will, and maybe I won’t.”
If you know my wife, that is a perfect expression of who she is. She was mad at them because they cut off a T-shirt that Jessica had given her.
So here we thought she was dead, but she was conscious. What we need is a living consciousness.
If you lose that living consciousness that you are in the body of Christ, there will be no expression of fellowship. You have to have consciousness. It is an absolute necessity.
Brother Nee went on to say—listen to this very carefully. I wrote down these quotes and took very much consideration for what he was saying:
Hearing the teaching and seeing the reality of the body of Christ belong to two different realms. Hearing the teaching of the body is merely an outward understanding of principle, whereas seeing the body of Christ produces a consciousness within.
May the Lord deliver us from a concept. May the Lord deliver us from just a mental apprehension of what God wants, and may the Lord give us a living consciousness of what we have been called into.
If we have that living consciousness, fellowship will be expressed. Without that living consciousness, I do not know how to put it in any other mild terms, but you are dead. Do you understand? Consciousness is the first thing we need.
Well, three things I want us to really sort of major on today, if we can. One is the fact. I think facts are very important. Two is the form. I think we need to understand what this body of Christ is. And three is the function.
I think the problem, at the end, when it comes to the body of Christ, is there is so little function. There is a lot of understanding, but there is not a lot of function. So that is why I have chosen that maybe we consider that last.
So, three things: the fact, the form, and the function.
Facts are very important things. We must be conscious of the fact of the body of Christ, or there will never be any fellowship expressed.
I remember another thing years ago when I was a young believer, and I only mention it because I have been so helped by this brother. Brother Nee once again said, “And ye search the Scriptures.” We need to see the fact of the Holy Spirit.
You need to know what the facts are. If you know what the facts are in the Word of God, faith can follow and fellowship can be expressed. But if you do not know what the facts are in the Word of God, faith can never follow. It will be founded on some idea that is not founded in the Word of God, and certainly fellowship will never be expressed.
So those things are important. We need to know the facts.
I remember growing up in what was the TV generation. You’ve heard me say this before. I think you’ve heard Jim say it before. There was a TV show. They say it was the most popular police drama, a police show, ever in television history, believe it or not. It was the show Dragnet.
You remember there was a character, Sergeant Joe Friday. Some of you do not really remember this; you were way too young. Oh, reruns, I guess.
Sergeant Joe Friday was known for the catchword in that show. He would say, “Just the facts, ma’am.” That is all Joe Friday wanted. Actually, the strange little thing is, he never said exactly that. He said something like it, but he never said that.
But all Friday was interested in, talking to a witness or suspect, was, “What are the facts? What are the facts?” If we know the facts, then we know what we are. If we know the facts, we can stand in the facts. If you do not know the facts, you have nothing to stand on.
So, when we study the Word of God, look for the facts. They are very important things. They are very vital.
Here is the first fact. Turn back to First Corinthians 12:27. I think this is a vital fact.
Begin with this one word. This is a very important word. I already told you it was an important word: now.
Now ye are Christ’s body, and members in particular.
Notice that this was the summary of what the apostle Paul had to say to the Corinthians about this body of Christ. This chapter, by the way, First Corinthians 12, is the premier chapter in the whole Bible concerning the body of Christ. It is the premier explanation of what the body of Christ is.
He summarizes his whole thought with this single fact: “Now ye are the body of Christ.” Not later, not someday, not hopefully, but now are ye the body of Christ. That is a very important fact.
It is not a future hope but a present reality. We may not be expressing fellowship very well, but it is a present reality. It is now. It is not later. It is to be now.
Now, think of that. He says, “Now are ye the body of Christ.” Can there be anything more precious to one’s person than their own body?
The Lord Jesus has chosen us. Oh, let me back up. He does not call us His library. Have you noticed that? Oh, we’ll be filled with book knowledge. But He calls us, in this extraordinary way, His own body.
There is nothing more personal to you. There is nothing more intimate to you. There is nothing more close to you. There is nothing more attached to you—at least I hope it is attached to you—than your body.
The Lord Jesus said, now, through the apostle Paul, “Ye are the body of Christ.” Isn’t that an unbelievable privilege?
It says in Ephesians 5 that He loves it, cherishes it, and nourishes it. There could not be anything more close to you. With all of your faults, your own body is the thing closest to you. He has chosen us to be the body of Christ, that we might be the closest thing to Him.
As you think about it, my body is to be the expression of who I am. You know me by my gestures. You know me not by my thoughts—you never hear my thoughts—but you know me by the expression of my thoughts. You know me by the way I talk, the way I walk, how I touch, and what I do.
So likewise, Christ is to be known in that same way through this special vessel that He has chosen. Now are ye the body of Christ. What a tremendous privilege that is.
Romans 1 through 8 talks about the individual Christian life. It is Christ expressed. Unless you have an individual Christian life and you’re conscious that the Lord Jesus lives in you, Christ cannot be expressed in your life as an individual.
Romans 9 through 11 talks about the mystery of Israel and how that expression that God chose to express through the children of Israel was interrupted. The apostle uses that phrase, “Blindness in part has come, until the fullness of the nations comes in.” Then it says, “All Israel will be saved.”
I do not know what that means. There are people who have argument—you may be one—along the lines of replacement theology. But I happen to believe that somehow, in the great mystery of fellowship, God will use Israel again, draw them back to Himself, and in the kingdom they will be the nation through which He expresses His fellowship.
We are the people; they will be the nation.
But then you come to Romans 12. You come to Paul’s important point. Look at Romans 12:4-5:
For as in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same office, thus we, being many, are one body in Christ.
Notice that word. If you have the King James Version, it says, “So we, being many, are one body.” This is the fact. Thus, we are one body in Christ, and we are the thing that is to be closest to Him, the expression of all He is, and the revelation of this mystery of fellowship.
Now, that is the first fact. That is something you need to see. The second fact is that there is one body.
If you look at either First Corinthians or Romans, you will discover this single explicit fact: there is only one body. As a matter of fact, we make a mistake sometimes, because sometimes we say, “I meet with a body here,” or, “I meet with the body there.” Really, there is only one body.
We are all members. Every believer is a member of that one body. But that one body is expressed in a local assembly or a local church. There is where the expression of fellowship is held.
You cannot just talk about the universal church and say that is the body of Christ. It is true. It is a fact. There is only one body. There are not two bodies, or three bodies, or a Chinese body, or an American body, or an African-American body. There is only one body in Christ.
When we gather locally, we are to be the full expression of fellowship of that one body. In other words, that one body is to be expressed in the locality.
If you look at the Lord’s two explanations of what the church is in Matthew 16, you will see how He tells Peter about His church:
Upon this rock I will build My church, and Hades’ gates will not prevail against it.
That is the concept of the body of Christ in a universal understanding. But you have to go to Matthew 18:20, where He talks about the church again, where He says:
Wherever two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them.
That is the place where this idea, this reality, this fact that we are the body of Christ is to be expressed in fullness: in the local assembly.
Some people have little to do with the local assembly. They do not think much of the local assemblies. They love to talk about how they are in the body of Christ, but if all you understand is that universal understanding—that you are one along the generations of believers—you will never enter into the expression of fellowship.
It is only when you come into Matthew 18. It is only there a brother can sin against you. It is only there where the Lord says, “I am in your midst.” It is only there, as you read in First Corinthians, that unbelievers will come into the midst of the assembly and say, “Surely God is in your midst.”
That is the local expression of the body of Christ, and it is a vital fact. The body is one, but it is to be expressed in a local context so that fellowship might be expressed.
We stand on this sacred fact of the oneness of the body of Christ. We stand on it because we declare that the Christ is not divided. Every brother and sister in Christ, wherever they are, is your brother and sister.
But we meet together to manifest fellowship expressed. Do you understand? You cannot leave that out. If you leave that out, you cannot understand two-thirds of the New Testament, because two-thirds of the New Testament is written as letters to local assemblies about how they should live and how they should behave.
If you leave this aspect, this fact, out, fellowship will never be expressed.
Well, I think you get it. If you live only in Matthew 16:18, you only have a concept. But if you live in Matthew 18:20, you have a consciousness.
Sometimes that consciousness is a very rude consciousness. Sometimes you discover a brother can sin against you. Sometimes you discover you can be offended. Sometimes you can discover you’re not the choice one of the flock, and all of a sudden you did not get your place, and you wonder.
That is where fellowship is to be expressed.
There is a third fact: How do we become a member of the body of Christ? The body of Christ is a living organism, not an organization.
There are only two ways to become a member of the body of Christ. This fact is absolutely important. You must be born into it, and you must be baptized into it.
Now, understand, I am not talking about natural birth, and I am certainly not talking about water baptism. If you look at the Scriptures, it is very clear how the members become members of the body of Christ.
You remember when the Lord Jesus was talking to Nicodemus at that nocturnal meeting in John 3. He interrupted Nicodemus, who was a seeker, and He said, “Nicodemus, verily, verily, I say unto you, unless you are born again, or born anew, you cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus was puzzled. This great mind, this epitome of the children and sons of Israel, was confused, and he said, “How is it a man, being old, can go back into his mother’s womb?”
The Lord Jesus said it again: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, unless you are born anew, or born again, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” So, you cannot see it, and you cannot enter into the kingdom of God unless you are born again.
Unless you are born again, you will never enter into living fellowship. Let me tell you that. When you are born again, you will have a consciousness of being born again. You will not wonder, “Am I born again?”
I remember February 4, 1972. For some of you, that is ancient history, but for me it is like yesterday. That night I was born again.
I remember new life of the Lord Jesus flooded into me. I remember going home filled with the Spirit, singing songs I had just learned, and rejoicing in a fellowship I had never known. I experienced a living consciousness of what it meant to be washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus.
That is how you become a member. The second way you become a member is that you must be baptized into the body of Christ. Let me explain, because this is not talking about water baptism.
Go back to First Corinthians 12:12-13:
For even as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ.
For also in the power of one Spirit, we have been baptized into one body.
Brothers and sisters, you must be baptized into the body of Christ. So when you believe in the Lord Jesus, two things happen to you.
First, you are born of the Spirit and become a new creation in Christ Jesus. Old things are passed away, and then you have a living consciousness of being in fellowship.
But a second thing happens. It is equally important, and if you leave it out, you miss what this fellowship is all about. You have been baptized by one Spirit into one body in Christ Jesus. That is how you become a member of the body of Christ.
When we look at Acts 2, we like to talk about the sight and the sound. We like to talk about the fire and the tongues. We like to get hung up on the spectacular. But First Corinthians 12:13 is the explanation of what happened at Pentecost.
On the day of Pentecost, those 120 members who were truly saved and had a consciousness of what it meant to believe in the Lord Jesus and be born again—something tremendous happened. They were baptized by one Spirit into one body: no longer individual members, but one body in Christ.
That is the fact of what happened at Pentecost.
That is what you need. You need to understand this fact. You were born from above, and at the same time—because it all happens to us when we believe—you were baptized by one Spirit into one body.
Now, another thing we need to see—and these are shorter, but I think we need to see them—is the form of the body of Christ. It is a simple form. It is not that complicated. We like to make things way too complicated.
It is simply head and body, joined in a living fellowship, to express everything that is in the heart, thought, mind, and intention of the Head.
He is the most important part of the body of Christ. When you read the Scripture, you begin to discover another very important thing: there is a Head over this body. We read it in Ephesians. You can read it in Colossians. The Head of the church is Christ.
You can read in Colossians that we are to be holding fast the Head. The reason sometimes there is so little expression of fellowship is that we are not holding fast the Head. It is the most important part.
We are vitally connected, and He is the Head of the body. It says in Ephesians 1:22, “Head over all things to the church.” It says in Ephesians 4 that He is the Head. It says in Ephesians 5:23, “Christ is the Head of the church.”
Brothers and sisters, this is the most important part of the body. Everything comes from the Head: His thoughts, His intentions, His desires, His will. The body is simply to be in living connection with Him to express all that He is. That is what fellowship is.
Can you imagine if we had a headless body? First of all, it would be grotesque. But I think maybe that is part of what the problem is today in the church. In many ways, it is a headless body.
We are running around doing whatever we think is important. We find what we think the important Christian things are to be doing, and we are doing that aside from the headship of Christ.
When in fact, what we are supposed to do is be livingly connected to the Head and from the Head express all that He is. That is what we are supposed to be doing.
I do not know. I hated literature. I do not know how many of you did. I guess that is a reason I am an engineer. But I hated literature and reading these stories. I’ll never forget Washington Irving’s story about the Headless Horseman.
A fantastic story. It was the story of this headless horseman, who actually was a Hessian artilleryman who had his head clean blown off, legend says, in the Battle of White Plains in 1776. Feverishly and furiously, he would rise up out of the grave every night, rushing all over the land looking for his head.
I think we need to be looking for the Head—holding fast the Head, making the Lord Jesus, submitting to the Head, holding up the Head—not being a headless body doing whatever we think is right.
The other part of that form is the members. Everywhere you look in Scripture, when it concerns the body of Christ, you will see this thought expressed again and again: there are many members. Many members. Every member is vital.
It is not just a few members, but there are many members. Read First Corinthians 12. Read Romans 12. You will discover that there are not just a few.
You will discover another thing when you read concerning this form of the body of Christ: among all those members, there is a full expression of who Christ is. You will discover that there are members that seem to have more honor and members that seem to have less honor.
Now, I do not know what that means. Some people have speculated the apostle Paul was talking about the face. We give more glory to the face. You know, it is always a face, the seat of beauty.
Think of the heart for a moment. Think of the liver. You try to live without your liver. Think about your stomach for a moment. These things are clothed with more abundant honor.
Many members, and every one of the members is vital.
Sometimes we get the idea that the church is the expression of a prominent member. Everything centers around the ministry. Everything centers around a man. We lift up a man’s ministry, and we make that man the center.
Can you imagine if you had all one big ear in the body of Christ? Can you imagine? Can you imagine if you just had one big hand in the body of Christ?
The apostle Paul argues in First Corinthians 12 that if you had this condition, you would not have the body of Christ, and you would not have fellowship expressed.
But he goes on to say that every member is vital. You cannot say, “Because I am not an ear, because I am not an eye, I am not in the body.” You cannot say that. And you cannot say, “Because you are an ear or an eye, we have no need of you.” Those are the two arguments he makes.
Every member in the body of Christ is vital. We need to understand that. We need to encourage one another, embrace one another, support one another, so that every member—if there is going to be a full expression of fellowship—must be vital.
You cannot have some who are not. I think of the opposing thumb. It is a miracle of God’s creation. Look what you can do with your thumb. You can hold things. I can grab hold of Jerry. I can hold on. I can lift up the water.
If you did not have your thumb for a moment, just think of the difficulty you would have. You can say, “I have no need of you,” but just try it for a week or two.
I think every member is vital.
You will discover another thing: every member is placed in the body as He pleases. As it pleases Him, the Word of God says, in First Corinthians 12:18:
But God has set the members, each one of them, in the body according as it pleased Him.
It means literally “set for Himself.” I think sometimes we are trying to be like somebody else. We are always saying, “If I were only like him. If I were only like her.” But brothers and sisters, be faithful to who you are. Serve the Lord in who you are.
You are a vital member of the body, whether you are a hidden member or whether you are what you consider a member of greater honor. But then the Bible says He gives greater honor to the member that lacked. This is a secret.
Finally, the secret is function. I am telling you, I cannot think of a more severe problem in the church.
If you look around today in the body of Christ, you will see a few members doing a lot, and most of us—and I am careful about these words—are either passive or paralyzed.
Now, we know people in that condition, and it is a tough life to live through. But most of us, as members in the body of Christ, are either passive—no idea of it, not engaged—or we are paralyzed.
Maybe you just have a concept, but you are not livingly and vitally linked and engaged.
Or we are paralyzed. We are in fear of man. We are in fear that we will do something wrong. We are in fear that we will not have something significant to contribute to the body of Christ.
Yet every member is vital in the body of Christ, and every member’s contribution is exceedingly worthwhile.
I think the problem today is we are not functioning. Function is the key to fellowship. Function is the secret of the expression of fellowship.
The fact is not enough. The form is not sufficient. Function is absolutely vital.
If I can appeal to you as a brother today, the one way I would like to appeal to you is: begin to take your place in the body of Christ and begin to function.
I have people come to me many times and say, “Brother, what am I to do?” I do not think you need to be told what to do. The Holy Spirit is in you. You just begin to be faithful.
You just begin to function where the Lord has given you a consciousness of the body of Christ. You begin to serve. You begin to pray. You begin to worship. You begin to help the saints. You begin to do the little things.
Then, all of a sudden, if all the members of the body of Christ begin to be joints of supply, as we read in Ephesians 4:15-16, or working parts, then you will begin to see fellowship expressed in a way that you never have before.
You see, it is good for a machine to have few working parts; it does not break down as often. But it is not good for the body of Christ to have few working parts.
If you look at Ephesians 4:15-16, it is the parts, the joints of supply, the working parts that are functioning, that cause the body to be built up.
Maybe I’ll read that verse as our closing. Turn to Ephesians 4.
Brothers and sisters, this is vital. If we do not get hold of this, we will never be an expression of that fellowship.
Ephesians 4:16:
From whom the whole body, fitted together and connected by every joint of supply, according to the working in its measure of each one part, works for itself the increase of the body to itself building in love.
These are very important words: “fitted together,” “connected,” “every joint of supply.” Are you a joint of supply?
“According to the working in its measure”—not beyond its measure. Too many people want to do what is beyond their measure. Only do what is in your measure, and God will give you more to do.
Each one is a working part. Brothers and sisters, this is how fellowship is expressed.
I want to ask you again before I close: Do you have a concept only? Is it all words? Or do you really have a living consciousness?
If we have a living consciousness, and we understand the facts of the Word and the form of the body and the importance of functioning, then fellowship can be expressed the way God has chosen for it to be expressed: through His own body, the thing closest to Him.
Shall we pray?
Lord, we just bring these words back to You. We really ask for Your grace and Your help to make them real and alive.
Lord, we do not want to be those who live out our days, even as believers, with just a concept. Deliver us from just concept. Give us a living consciousness.
Cause us to know what is in Your heart, and then to obey and follow You. Cause us to be given to what is in Your heart, and then allow the Holy Spirit to work through us as members of Your body.
Lord, I want to ask Your forgiveness for where I have been passive or where I have been paralyzed. Lord, deliver me.
Today among the saints, I want to say we give our all to You, that You would have that body that You want, and that fellowship would be expressed, as the Word says, now unto the principalities and powers, the all-various wisdom of Christ.
In Jesus’ name.