The Holy Spirit ll – Lesson

What is ‘The body Of Christ’?

Lesson 1: How Does It Function?


Introduction

Objective

Most people use the term church without much idea of what ‘church’ really means. People often think of the many denominations which only adds to the confusion as to what is church? One can understand their confusion as there are many ‘churches’ across the globe that have many different titles as well as very different ‘services’. They include Church of England being the recognised state church in the UK, Baptist, Methodist, Catholic and Evangelical to name but a few. There are also many other religions that give the impression that they are church but have no resemblance whatsoever to the TRUE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST as stated by Paul the Apostle in the New Testament Scriptures. Other religions that resemble Christianity but are not are; Church of Jesus Christ of latter Day Saints, Jehovah Witnesses, Islam and The New Age Movement, to name but a few.

The objective of this lesson is to help you to distinguish between false religion and the true body of Christ. You will then know without a shadow of  doubt the difference, and have confidence in who you are in Christ. 

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Religion in the dictionary is defined as  the belief in and worship of a god or gods, or any such system of belief and worship: e.g. the ​Christian religion
[When used informally] an activity that someone is extremely enthusiastic about and does regularly: e.g. Football is a religion for these people (Cambridge dictionary)

Religion therefore, is something you practice regularly whether it is with a group of people or not. The definition of church is quite different.

Having defined religion we can now move on to find out what is the true ‘Church’ otherwise known as The Body of Christ which exist within the Kingdom of God. We speak about the church but there is a phrase we use when speaking about the church. What is it?

The True church is made up of people:
Who have recognised Jesus as the Son of the Living God
Who believe He died for their sins on the cross at Calvary and on the third day rose again.

Who have realised they are a sinner and need to repent
Have surrendered their lives to Him and accepted Him in their heart
Follow Him by reading and obeying His Word, the Bible.

Reading assignment

1 Corinthians chapter 12

Bertie Bassett
Please do this reading assignment before going on…thank you

Paul, in verse 12, speaking to the Corinthian Church is explaining how the body works and how it functions.  We must remember here though, that Christ is the head of the body. So we can establish from this that there is only one body across the world.

Note: The body of Christ/church is made up of many parts and each part is different so do not expect everybody to be and feel like you.  

This has been a hard lesson for me as I expected everyone to feel about Jesus like I did and to want to do the things that I did and never understood why they didn’t.  Well here it is….we are all different.  We all have a different part to play.

Just look at Bertie Basset …a happy chappy …all parts different yet working together to function. That is how God wants us each part working as it should be in conjunction with the other parts.

In verse 18 it says; that it is God who has arranged the parts in the body, everyone of them just as He wanted them to be.
For proper functioning it is crucial that we recognise that it is God, and He alone, that has placed us where He wants us to be and not to want another’s position.

In verse 12 The body is a unit though it is made up of many parts. For we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks slave or free.

In verse 21 The eye cannot say to the hand ‘I have no need of you’ and the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you’ .

Paul exhorts us to give more honour to the parts that to us appear weaker, and that the innermost parts are the most precious.

In Psalm 133 it says ‘Where the brethren dwell in unity there the Lord commands a blessing. When the body takes care of itself there is tremendous unity. When we esteem one another more highly than ourselves then we are on our way to Holy Spirit Unity.

When you have an injury in your own body, or an operation on a certain part your whole body is affected.



I had an operation on my hand and could not work as I used to. Because of this my other hand took twice as much strain, and my whole body was affected. I could not bend my arm, I could not dress myself properly and needed help, I could not iron (that was good though) I could not drive.  That one operation took away an awful lot of joy. I remember thinking of this chapter in Corinthians and how the body is affected because when one part suffers, we all suffer. (1 Corinthians 12;26)

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Summary
The Body Of Christ lives by the power of the Holy Spirit within the hearts of the believer.  
The body of Christ’s function is to deliver the good news of Jesus Christ and to bring glory to God in so doing.  Its message is one of love and to care for and love one another 1 John 4; 7 – 8
It functions within the Kingdom of God. Read Luke 17: 20 Jesus’s words:
The Kingdom of God does not come by careful observation, nor will people say, ’here it is’ or, there it is, because the Kingdom of God is within you’ 

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Assignment
When did the body of Christ/the church begin? 
Hint: This can be found in the book of Acts

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