One Body, One Lord
Statement of Faith • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Welcome - continuing in our series preaching through the statement of faith the elders have adopted
I want to begin with a question this morning.
Who is the Pastor in charge of this church?
Pastor David brought this up last week when he spoke about our doctrine of the church. He focused mostly on the local church, and membership, and the sacraments, but in addressing this question, he showed us why we should commit to a local church and take part in the sacraments according to the Bible.
It’s because of the Pastor Who is in charge of this church.
And that’s Jesus Christ. He is in charge around here.
He is Lord.
So, we believe what we do about the church because He told us what to believe.
And the fact that He is our Lord - the church and every individual Christian - matters very much not just for the statement we are looking at today, but the entire statement of faith. Because the fact that He is Lord matters for all we believe - for all we do.
We have to believe what Christ says over anyone else and everything else.
That’s why we want to be clear on what we believe. That’s why we have this statement. We want to explain what we believe all according to what Christ the Lord has told us in His Word.
And today we are going to do that as we continue talking about the church, but we are going to focus on the fact that Christ is the Head of the whole church - of the whole universal church made up of everyone who believes, who has ever believed, or who will ever believe.
In short, there is one body and there is one Lord.
And that’s what we see in our passage today: there is one Lord over the one Church, and that is Jesus Christ.
But let’s think about the flow of the letter to the Ephesians so we can really understand this passage from chapter 4.
Immediately after his greeting, Paul talks about our inheritance - we who have been predestined according to God’s sovereign purposes and who hope in Christ - he says that we have been sealed with the Spirit Who will preserve us unto the last day when we receive our inheritance.
We see in that a lot of the things we already talked about in our statement of faith there.
Then, Paul talks about God revealing Himself to us so we can understand Who He is - we’ve talked about that - and then He moves right to the exaltation of Christ as King of all - and how we - the church - are under His sovereignty because He is the head of the Church. Paul calls the church: “His body, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all.” - Paul talks about the church as if it is part of Christ, as if it is an extension of Christ Himself - and that’s because we are.
But that’s just chapter one. Paul goes on to explain how all in Christ were all at one point helpless sinners living under the dominion of sin, and that it is only by God’s grace in Christ, through faith, that God does the work of saving us.
Then, Paul reveals what he calls the mystery of Christ. He spends a lot of time on this. And the mystery that is that there is, in fact, One People of Christ. And that is who makes up the church.
Pastor David explained “mystery” - something that was hidden, but now revealed. Paul is talking about something God has revealed to us.
What has been revealed, says Paul, is that there is no more division between Jew and Gentile, because in Christ we are all one - through Christ we all have the same access to the same God through the same Spirit. We are one church made up of His one people - and it’s always been that way.
That’s the mystery that has been revealed. It has always been those of faith that were God’s people.
We are fellow citizens and members of the household of God that is built on the foundation of the Apostles and prophets - God’s Word - and on the cornerstone of Christ - our Lord.
And through the church, the will of God - His eternal purpose - is revealed. God reveals His will through Christ and His church that He is building.
And His will is that there would be one, united people of God.
The Apostle Peter talks about Christ building His church as one people.
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
We, precious living stones - each of us - are being built up into one singular spiritual house - all of us together as one.
We also talked about this in our 1 Corinthians series. We saw that we, the church, are the Temple of God. That’s a big deal.
Because what did Christ say was the Temple of God? His body. Literally, His body, that was raised up at the resurrection was the rebuilding of the Temple - and the rebuilding continues in us - the Church. We are His body that He said would be built when He would rise from the dead.
That’s what Paul talks about in Ephesians one through three.
Then Paul gets to our passage from today. He takes everything he already said about God’s will and how it is revealed through His one people Who are His body, and he tells us exactly what it means.
What does it mean?
There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
There is one God. One Triune God!
We see here the Father, the Lord Who is the Son, and the Spirit. There is one God, three in One. No one who is truly a believer disputes that. It is the basic of our faith.
But Paul says that there is no more two types of saving faith than there are two Gods to put our faith in.
There are no more two baptisms than there are two Gods to believe in. There is one baptism - which is the baptism of the Spirit whereby we are regenerated so that we can believe. In other words, the Spirit saves all of God’s people the same way.
We see this in the book of Acts, when Peter preaches to Cornelius and his family, the Jews are amazed that the Spirit fell on Gentiles exactly like He did on Jews. That is a revelation of the mystery of the same salvation by the same Spirit for all.
That’s what Paul is talking about here.
⬇️But look at how Paul starts this. He talks about God and the mystery revealed in Christ. And what’s the first conclusion? There is one body.
What is he referring to? He already told us earlier in the letter. We - the church - are the body of Christ. He is the head - the Lord - the sovereign - the senior-most senior pastor there is - and we are His body.
We are an extension of Who He is. We are part of Him.
So, just like He revealed God to us, we also reveal God in a special way. We - the church - are what reveals that mystery of God’s eternal will: that there would be one people - one church - who are His. One people Who reveal His eternal will.
One people Who reveal Him. That’s who we are.
Which is why our statement for today reads:
We believe that the local church is under the authority of Christ alone. The communion of saints, however, requires recognition of and fellowship with other churches.
But wait, this talks about the local church, you may say. And it does. But it really communicates two very specific things:
Christ is Lord of the church. We are under His authority, and His alone. Every church. This church. Ultimate authority is not in a pope, or a board of bishops, or a presbytery, or a denominational office. Christ is the Lord of the church. That is the first thing we see here.
And second, the communion of saints - the communion of God’s “holy ones” - of those He has called according to His eternal will - this requires that every local church - all under the headship of Christ and Christ alone - are to be recognized by every other local church and are to be in fellowship with them.
Why? Because no matter how many local churches there are, there is one Church. Christ is not divided. He has one body.
So all this means, is that Christ is the head of the one, universal church, and that’s why He is the head of every local expression of that one, universal church.
So, Christ is Lord of Montclair Community Church.
That means He is Lord of how we structure our church. Of how we run the church. Of who can or can’t hold certain offices in the church. Of who can or can’t preach His Word. Of the elements that make up our Sunday worship service. Of what we believe. Of what kind of ministries we run.
Christ is Lord over it all.
Because Christ is Lord of all. Not just of every church, but of every person. He is Lord of all, period, end. Not just of all all true churches, and not just of all people whether they know it or not… but over the whole of every person whether they know it or not - and here’s the thing: we know it!
That’s why He is Lord over the whole of our church.
That’s why Paul spends three chapters talking to the church about the unity of the one church, and then begins his application by addressing that one church.
And look at what he says:
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
⬇️Who is Paul talking to?
I know, we live in an individualistic culture, and we automatically think everything is about us personally. And I don’t mean that as a slight, it’s just a fact. We in 21st century America are individuals before we are a collective - we have been taught to think in those terms.
We think in terms of “me” as a member of the church and move from ourselves to the collective. It’s how we’ve been trained to think.
But that’s a relatively new phenomenon.
But that wasn’t the way it was in the first century. It isn’t the way it should be now. Paul addresses most of his letters to the church as a whole, not to individuals.
So we need to think in terms of the whole and then take individual action based on the primacy of the whole, for the good of the whole.
This is a matter of how we understand the church, and our place in it.
Because we as a church are to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called.
We are, as a church, to do this with humility, gentleness, and patience.
We are, as a church, to bear with one another in love.
We are, as a church, to be eager to maintain our unity because we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit.
This is about the church.
And that’s why we take our personal responsibility to the church and to the Lord of the church seriously and submit ourselves to His will by doing these things in our own lives for the sake of the whole.
But here’s the big question: is this just for us here at Montclair Community Church? Is it just for those who are part of the same local church, no matter what church that is? Like, we do this among ourselves here as an insulated collection of Christians and so does the church down the street?
Well, the answer has to be no! There is one body and one Spirit into Whom all Christians are baptized.
This is for the universal church. This applies to all true churches, together as one.
And as Pastor David pointed out last week, just because an organization has the word “church” in their name, that doesn’t mean they are a true church. We are talking about churches that have Christ as Lord.
Because there is one true church. Every true local church together make up one true universal church, and the instructions given to the church apply to all of us together.
So, just like as an individual I need to think in terms of the collective of this church and then do what I do for Christ with the collective in mind, so too, as a church, we need to think in terms of the universal church and our commission, and take action as a church based on that.
And thinking about it that way - understanding that - it has a great impact on what we do and how we do it. It has an impact on how we worship. It impacts how we do missions, on how we do evangelism, on how we do outreach - on how we do everything we do.
Because, understand, I am not here to build a church. The elders are not here to build a church. We, all together, are not here to build a church. Christ is already doing that. He is building one universal church.
Let’s go back to what we saw last week for a minute:
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
This passage tells us Who Christ is. It tells us what the church is. And it tells us what the church is here on earth to do.
It starts with Christ, the Son of God, the Lord of all - He builds, not churches, but His one church. His universal church.
And we, remember, are His body. We are an extension of Him here on earth while He reigns from heaven. That’s who we are. We are those that God has revealed Himself to.
Who Christ is, is not revealed to us by man, but by God. And Christ is building His church with those who truly know Him.
And why is He building His one church? Why are we here? So we can knock down the very gates of hell.
What does that mean?
Well, let’s first talk about the problem.
As we saw last week, there were about 40 churches in Montclair.
If Paul had written a letter to “the church in Montclair”, which of those churches would it be for?
I say it would be for every church who could agree to the first part of today’s statement:
We believe that the local church is under the authority of Christ alone.
So when every true local church in Montclair read that letter and read things like:
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
What would each church think of that part about unity? Or about bearing with one another in love?
Or the fact that there is one body under one Lord?
Who would they think that applied to?
Well, probably to their church. But if their church believed the first half of the statement, then what Paul says here should lead them to believe the second half:
The communion of saints…requires recognition of and fellowship with other churches.
We are not an island. We are not called to carry out the Great Commission in a vacuum while the church down the street does the same.
We are not in competition with other true churches. We aren’t a supermarket that wants people’s business so they don’t give it to another supermarket.
I know there are plenty of churches that operate that way. That brand themselves this way or that to attract more people. That see other churches as their competition.
But that is not what any local church is called to.
We are all called to serve our Lord.
To preach Him and His truth. To share the Good News, observe the sacraments, teach what Christ taught, and make disciples.
We are not called to build the church. Christ said He would do that.
So we need to understand what Paul us saying in this letter. He makes it very clear. There is one body, called to one hope, saved by one faith in the same Lord.
We need to be part of that one body. We as a church, and we as Christians.
We need to do what we are commissioned to do while Christ builds His church.
How do we do that?
Okay, let’s take this a little further.
Let’s imagine for a second that we did things like the church did in the first-century church.
And this letter is particularly interesting to do this with, because it is widely believed that the letter to the Ephesians wasn’t actually to the Ephesians. At least, not just the Ephesians. It was an encyclical letter.
It was actually sent to all the churches in Asia Minor. One church would get it, copy it, send the copy to the next church, and so on. This was a normal practice then.
We will be preaching through Colossians soon, and we’ll see that Paul tells the Colossians to share his letter to them with the church in Laodicea, the next town over.
And when these letters got to the churches, they would be read publicly during service, since the Xerox machine was still almost two millennia away. So that is how the Christians got Paul’s instructions. They were read aloud to them.
So imagine today’s service was me just reading this letter - “Paul, an apostles of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Montclair, NJ, and are faithful in Crist Jesus”.
And we hear how he explains God’s eternal plan to have one people with no divisions among them, and how He accomplished this through Christ and how anyone from anywhere or any time is part of this plan if they have faith in Christ.
Then I get to this part about walking worthy of our calling and striving for unity and peace.
What would you think when you heard these words? How would you think they applied?
Well, we would do what we usually do. I would think they applied to me personally.
And I would worry about me. And I would do my best to make sure I tried to live according to Paul’s instructions.
Because, after all, Jesus is my Lord and Savior.
But would that be right?
⬇️You know, I have seen it so many times - people leave a church for what they believe is a good reason. But what it usually comes down to, is that the church did things - maybe only one thing, maybe a few things - but the church did things differently than they would.
And the story usually plays out this way: they just go on to the next church, and then the same thing happens, so they don’t stay there. And they search and search, looking for a local church that does things they way they think they should be done.
Or, you have people who stay in a churches, but they can only focus on what they disagree with. You know, they can hear an entire sermon and they walk away thinking about that one thing the preacher said that they disagreed with instead of the hundred things they agreed with.
Or you have those who are only concerned about their ministry - they need to have their thing or they simply aren’t satisfied at a church. I have seen people walk into a church and say they will join, but only if they can run a ministry.
So many make being part of a church about them.
As if the church is being built by Christ to please them, rather than for them to please Christ.
And this is the tendency of all our hearts. If there is anything universal to all Christians’ struggle against the old self, it’s that the old self still screams within us like a two year old “mine!”
We naturally make anything we do - even church - about me.
But in the church, there is no mine. There is Christ’s.
Church is not about me. It’s about Christ.
Because everything is Christ’s, and we are - together - His one church. His body that He is building up all for His glory and all for His purpose.
So our reason to be part of that church, needs to be Christ.
⬇️You know, when the band come together in the morning to run through the songs with the band, there are five guitarists. The first thing we all do is tune our instruments. And we tune them all the same, using the same standard for tuning.
And then, we play the songs all in the same key. The key dictates which chords we play.
If we didn’t do these things - if we all had a different standard for tuning and all played in any key we wanted - the music would be utter chaos and none of us would be together.
We would each be playing something different from each other even though we’d all be able to claim we are all playing the same song.
And it would just be the loudest of us that would seem to be playing right, because that person’s guitar would be the most prominent.
But when we all tune the same, and we all play in the same key, there aren’t five guitarists playing five songs. There is one band playing one song, in perfect harmony. And it is beautiful.
That’s how it is in a church.
Our tendency - all of us - is to walk according to our own tune.
If each of us tunes differently - if we each have a different standard for how to do church or a different idea of why we’re here, we’ll never be together.
If we don’t play in the same key - you know - we each do different things and have different goals all at the same time, it will be chaos. And all we’ll do is try to be louder than everyone else so our thing will be the most prominent.
But when we are all tuned the same, and we all play the same thing, our church is in perfect harmony. And it is beautiful.
Christ is the standard we have to tune our lives to. All of us.
His Word is the key we live in. All of us.
That is being the church.
But, like each guitarist in the praise band, once we’re all tuned the same and playing in the same key, we each have a responsibility to play our individual part as well as we can.
But wait - didn’t I say this isn’t about us as individuals. Yes, I did. Because it isn’t. It is about the collective. It is about the one body of Christ.
But each stone needs to be laid in place to build the Temple of God. And we are the stones being built up into a spiritual house.
And that’s the point. To build a house of stones, every stone has to be part of the whole. Every stone can’t be in business for itself.
Every stone can’t want to build a different house, a different way.
In other words, even when we do our part as individuals, we need to always keep ourselves tuned to the standard. We need to keep our eyes on Christ. Because:
There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
And that means we each need to do our part to build up that one body, because:
But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
Paul does not exclude the individual. The individuals are necessary. But their responsibility flows out of Christ building one church.
Paul’s point is the unity of the church - he focuses on the collective - but then explains that the responsibility is on “each of us” to make the “all of us” what the Lord says we should be.
And he reminds us that grace was given to each one of us. And this isn't talking about the grace we receive in salvation. This is talking about the fact that, in His grace, our Lord has gifted each of us to be part of the whole - to be living stones that He uses to build up the structure of the church.
By His grace, the Lord:
Gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
Let’s stop there.
There is a natural progression here.
Remember we saw that the church is built on a foundation. And that foundation is the apostles and prophets. It is the Scriptures the Holy Spirit breathed out through man. That is the foundation for th church.
And armed with the Word of God, Christ gave His church evangelists. And what is an evangelist?
Well, it is a transliteration of the Greek word used here. That means we just take the word and spell it out in English so it sounds like the Greek word.
The word literally means “bringer of good news.” And we call that good news, the Gospel. If we were to translate the word, we might come up with “Gospelist.”
Christ gave us “Gospelists.”
Because it is through the sharing of the Good News that Christ builds His church. It was by hearing the Gospel that the Gentiles were saved just like the Jews Who heard the Gospel.
And this is part of our responsibility as the church. We have to share the Good News. We have to let the world know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
But Christ grows His church another way. He builds up those who have already heard and believed the Gospel.
That’s why He gives shepherds and teachers.
Evangelism grows the church in number.
Hearing and learning the Word of God grows the church in faith. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ.
But that isn’t the end of the progression. You have the Word of God, given by the Apostles and Prophets. You have the Gospelists that share the good news so that people may believe.
You have the shepherd/teachers that help those who believe grow in faith.
And the chain culminates with… all of us:
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
This is about all of us. Christ builds His church through us. He equips us for service to build up His body.
Again, we are here for the body, not the other way around. Because we are here for Christ.
And we have to be here for Christ, together:
until [Paul says] we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
You see, Paul points out that each of us have a responsibility. We all need to be properly working parts of the body so the body - as a collective - builds itself up.
So that the body is built in number as the Gospel is brought to the world and souls are saved.
So that the body is built up in faith as the Gospel is brought to bear more and more on our lives and we grow up in every way into Christ Who is our Head.
And do you know what Christ called that? What He called the church being one, unified body of believers built on the foundation of His truth, each doing their part?
He called it a church that the gates of hell would not prevail against.
We are being built to assail the gates of hell!
In other words, being one unified church - that’s spiritual warfare.
It is still to this one unified church that Paul gives instructions on this:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but we wrestle against spiritual darkness.
This is nothing more than being the church. These are nothing more than the means by which we grow the church.
These are the means by which we assail the gates of hell and reclaim this world from the spiritual powers of darkness.
God is reclaiming His people from all nations - we have to reclaim this earth for our God until the knowledge of the glory of the Lord is over all the earth! That’s what we do as Christ’s body.
That's our calling. That's why we're here, the universal church, MCC, me, and you.
Christ our Lord calls us to it. As we enjoy His presence, the fellowship of the saints, and every good thing He gives us, we need to keep our eyes on the prize: Christ!
Because He will do it.
Because He has already done it.
As I said, in that passage where Peter confesses Christ, we see Who He is, who the church is, and what we are here to do:
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
But then Jesus tells us how this will be done:
From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
Christ is building His church, and it’s His church because He bought it at the price of His own life.
He is Lord.
But we do not do our part as He builds the church because He is a tyrant and we must obey - we do our part because He loved us so much that He died so we could live, and so much that He builds the church through us.
Through His sacrifice we are what we are, and by His grace we can be what we are.
And if you know the passage, Peter didn’t like the plan, and Christ told him that meant he was on the wrong side of things. He was on the wrong side of the spiritual battle.
We need to choose a side. As His people. As a church.
We need to know what Christ did to build His church, what He is doing to build His church, and what we need to do for Him to do it through us.
We need to stand on the truth of God - that’s spiritual warfare.
We need to be ready to share the Gospel - that’s spiritual warfare.
We need to overcome temptation by faith in Christ - that’s spiritual warfare.
We need to take up our sword - the Word of God - prayerfully and regularly - that’s spiritual warfare.
And we need to do this all together, as one. That’s spiritual warfare.
And that’s being the church - one body, under one Lord.
That’s how Christ will build His church. How He will build this church and the one universal church.
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Communion - it points us back to what he did to purchase the church as His own, and forward to the day when we will be with Him - but let’s focus on what happens in-between both of those - the church - let’s reflect on why we’re here
Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
