We Are The Body (Part Three)

Well, good morning to everyone! How is everyone doing this beautiful morning?

I would like to take a moment and make an announcement that definitely effects everyone here, as well as everyone watching this via the livestream and even after it becomes uploaded into the archives, this announcement affects us all!

Based upon a very, very accurate and reliable source, of which I neither doubt nor even question, it is confirmed and validated, that right now, even as I stand before you and deliver this message, Yeshua, the Son of the living God, is sitting on the throne as the resurrected, living King of Kings and Lords of Lords, at the right hand of the Father!

He walked this earth as the perfect Son of Man, and then He walked up to the cross and laid down His life as the spotless Lamb of God and then in three days, He walked out of the tomb and has since, ascended back to heaven.

Which is where He is seated at this very moment!

His return is very soon and of His kingdom and of His rule, there will be no end!

Are you ready to meet Him?

Do you know my King?

PLAY (THAT’S MY KING!)

Before we read from the Word together this morning, I wanted to announce to everyone that our dear sister in Christ, Teri Boulais, went home to be our Lord and Savior, just this past Friday.

She did exactly what she said to me, just a week ago, when we went to visit her in the hospital.

Before I walked out of the room, she took my hand and said to me, “Pastor Chris, when I go home, I want you and my family at CWC to celebrate my passing, because that’s what it should be, a celebration. I am looking forward to getting out of the hospital and going home, my home here , but I am also looking forward to going HOME! I am ready when He is ready for me!”

Do you guys know and understand that right now, Teri is in the presence of the very One who we are here worshipping together this morning?! AMEN?!!

And as we sing about and talk about the resurrected King, she is looking at Him right now!!

Please keep our brother, Joe, and their family in your prayers right now!

Would you please open your Bibles with me this morning and turn to the Old Testament book of Isaiah 53. As you are doing this, let me go ahead and ask you to stand with your Bible in hand, as we read our declaration together this morning.

“This is my Bible. I believe that this book and every word found within it are truly the living, breathing Words of almighty God! I know and believe that when I speak the words written in this book over my life and over my family, that I am literally bringing the authority and power of heaven into the midst of our lives and into whatever situation may be taking place. I believe that Jesus the Christ, is the Son of the living God and that He is the living, breathing Word of God! The Word of God is life, it is love, and it is power! This book was written with me in mind! Thank you God for your Word! Amen!”

Now, as you remain standing, let’s get ready for the reading of God’s Word.

Does everyone have Isaiah 53 turned to in their Bibles?

You know how we do this. I’ll read the first verse and then you all will read the next verse, until we have finished the passage.

We are going to be reading all 12 verses in this chapter.

Here we go, Isaiah 53,

Isaiah 53 ESV

1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

“The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God shall stand forever!” Amen!!!

You may be seated!

The passage that we just read is of course, the very familiar passage in Isaiah, which we commonly refer to as the “Suffering Servant” passage.

This passage was one of the prophecies given about the coming of our Lord and Savior, Yeshua, and it specifically speaks about His coming to serve as the substitution for our sins.

In fact, between the ending of Isaiah 52 and throughout chapter 53, we find the prophetic verses showing the Lord’s life, death, resurrection and coronation! That is why this passage is so amazing!

The soul purpose of Jesus coming to this earth, was to ransom mankind and free us from the grip of the enemy and the punishment of death that was due to us because of our sin.

And that is whole point of this passage. According to the Bible, all of mankind was infected and sick with the disease known as “sin”.

And there was no other cure for this disease, except substitutionary atonement.

The shedding of innocent blood for the forgiveness of sin, was required.

And that is what Jesus did for us and that is what this passage says that He became for us:

He became the one who carried our weakness and shame.

He bore the punishment for our sins.

He became the one who was pierced and crushed for our sin and He was beaten and whipped so that we could be healed of the spiritual disease, called, “sin”!

That is the message of the “Suffering Servant” passage. The Messiah would come and pay the debt that we owed, so that we could be free from the disease of sin!

And we see this same message being repeated again, in the New Testament, in the epistle of I Peter 2:24, which says,

1 Peter 2:24 ESV

24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

The body of Jesus the Christ, became the instrument of suffering and shame, upon the cross, so that we could be found forgiven and righteous in the eyes of His Father.

You and I and all of humanity, have no righteousness of our own, but because of Jesus’ great sacrifice, we were found righteous in the eyes of almighty God!

II Corinthians 5:21 says it this way,

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Friends, that is the “gospel message”! Jesus the Christ, took our sin upon His body while hanging on the cross, and He held the sin of the world there, until His pure blood covered and atoned every last ounce of sin and then He died.

He was taken down and placed within a borrowed tomb for burial, and then three days later, Jesus walked out of that tomb, victorious over hell, death and the grave!

And that is was we are proclaiming when we share the gospel message; He gave His body, as a sacrifice for us, so that we might live forever with Him in new, glorified bodies for all eternity!

And so, this morning we are continuing our look at the Body of Christ.

We saw last week, that it was God’s sovereign will to dwell amongst us on this earth and He accomplished this through the shed blood of His Son, Jesus the Christ.

Jesus came to this earth and took on a human form, according to the will of His Father. After He finished His work of atonement here, He went back to heaven and then sent His Holy Spirit down to the earth on the day of Pentecost, to dwell within His followers and just like that, the “Body of Christ”, the “ekklesia”, was born on the earth.

With the Holy Spirit of almighty God now dwelling within humanity on the earth, Jesus’ body could now span the entire globe, versus just one region around Israel!

Which is part of the reason why we see Jesus saying to His disciples in John 14:12, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”

In saying that the greater works we would do, were linked to His going to the Father, Jesus was saying, “I am sending another to help you” and through the empowering of Holy Spirit, the “spiritual body of Christ” grew instantly and begin to spread the kingdom of God throughout the entire globe!

Hebrews 10:5 says this of Jesus,

Hebrews 10:5 ESV

5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me;

God sent Jesus here with a human body to bring the kingdom of heaven to this earth and then He replaced His human body with a network of millions of bodies, all filled and driven by His Spirit, to accomplish the work of sharing the good news of the gospel message and keep growing the kingdom of God.

And that network of Holy Spirit filled believers, is you and I and every other blood bought saint around the globe; that is, the “ekklesia” of Jesus!

We are the Body of Christ on this earth now!

And as members of His body, we are to function in accordance with His will for our lives.

For we are not our own any longer. We belong to the Lord.

Romans 14:8,

Romans 14:8 ESV

8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.

Galatians 2:20,

Galatians 2:20 ESV

20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I Corinthians 6:19-20,

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 ESV

19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

This vessel that we call our bodies, if it truly has the Holy Spirit of God within it, then it is no longer your body, or my body, but rather it is now His body, to be used for His glory!

He is our Lord and we are His servants!

In saying that we are His “servants”, let me pause here for a second and unpack this for you.

I heard a teaching recently from a very prominent Bible teacher of our time and he was talking about the cover up of the word that we commonly see rendered as “servant” in the New Testament.

The word in the Greek that we commonly see represented as “servant”, is the word, “duolos”.

This word, “duolos”, does not mean servant.

A “duolos” is a SLAVE. That is what it means.

In fact, as I listened to this teacher really elaborate about this word, He mentioned about one of the, if not THE most extensive Lexicons of Greek words that is available to use; the Kittel Lexicon, from a German Bible scholar.

And when you look up “doulos” in the Kittel Greek Lexicon, you will find the following meaning: “slave”!

So, why do I mention this?

Well, there is an intimate relationship that exists between two words in the Greek: “kyrios” and “doulos”.

That is “master/Lord” and “slave”.

You cannot have a “master” and not have a “slave”.

That is the understanding when you see the word, “master/Lord”, then that person is a master or Lord over a slave or slaves.

That’s how it works.

In pretty much every modern translation of the Bible today, except for two, the Greek word “doulos” is always translated as “servant” vs “slave”.

Especially when referring to our position with our Lord.

A servant, is someone who performs a function and they are someone who can quit and walk away.

In the Greek there are various words that refer to servants, based upon the function they do.

Like a “diakonos”, which is servant who waits on tables and serves food and drink.

It is related to a function, not an identity!

A doulos, is related to an identity not a function.

If you are a “doulos”, then you are a slave; that is your identity!

And if Jesus the Christ is called our Kyrios, our Lord, then that makes you and I, His............exactly, His “doulos”, His SLAVE!

In Romans 1:1, when Paul opens up his epistle, he starts by introducing himself in saying, “Paul, a “doulos” of Christ Jesus”.

That word in your Bibles will read, a “servant”, but it means a “slave”, period.

You will see the same thing in Titus 1:1, “Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ”.

And again, in James 1:1, “James, a slave of God and of the Lord (kyrios) Jesus Christ.”

And James was the half-brother of Jesus and yet he still understood that relationship!

The reason that our Bibles don’t read it the way that it should read, is that when the translators were translating the Bible into English, they were afraid of the stigma that was associated with the word, “slave”, so they changed it!

And just like I told you about changing the name from “ekklesia” to “church”, it doesn’t have the same meaning and it alters what it was to mean and to represent.

We are not called “servants” of our Lord.

A servant is someone who has a function, but who can walk away from that function.

We are “slaves” to our Lord; He owns us.

The Bible says in I Corinthians 6:19-20,

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 ESV

19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Titus 2:14 says that the Lord “redeemed” us, that is, He bought us, for His own possession.

I Corinthians 7:23,

1 Corinthians 7:23 ESV

23 You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men.

I Peter 1:18-19 says,

1 Peter 1:18–19 ESV

18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

We were bought by Jesus and with His precious blood, to become His “doulos” and He is our “kyrios”!

And in a day and a time where everything has to be politically correct and we have to use modern terminologies, so as to NOT OFFEND, we have altered the meaning of the Word of God and its understanding as to who and what we are!

Jesus said in Luke 6:46,

Luke 6:46 ESV

46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?

You hear the word being used a lot now on the news and in society, of being “woke”. Like as in, we are waking up to the truth of things. We are being called a “woke society”.

Like removing Dr. Seuss books off of the shelves, because they were deemed bigotry. That was a “woke” movement.

Well, I’ve got news for everyone, we had better become real “woke” as to who and what we are as members of the Body of Christ!

He and He alone is Lord and Master. And in the same respect, we are called His “slaves”.

We are also called His children and His heirs and His own people.

Like I have said before, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world, are not even close to one another in meaning and understanding!

While we are here, we are to serve Him as Lord and Master, out of love for Him and for His glory!

Like I told you last week, everything that we do, is to be done for the glory of God..........period!

When you or I find something in this life that completes us and makes us feel whole and full, apart from the Lord, Jesus the Christ, then we are not His any longer.

We have removed Him and replaced Him with something of this world!

Only He is allowed to hold the position of supreme and only He is the one who can satisfy and sustain us in this life!

The reason that God created the heavens and the earth, according to Psalm 19, was to declare His glory.

The reason that God created you and I, according to Isaiah 43, was for His glory!

The reason that He rescues us, the reason that He allows unrighteous leaders like we have right now, the reason that God makes covenant with us and the reason that He allows to people to die and that He allows sickness to exist, is all for His glory!

And whether you agree with this, or don’t understand it, it doesn’t change why He does what He does.

EVERYTHING that we do, as His slave and as His child, is to be done for His glory and for no other reason!

And when Jesus walked this earth, He was the manifest glory of God to humanity, as John 1:14 tells us!

John 1:14 ESV

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus, Himself, said that He had come to this earth to glorify His Father and in saying that, He went to cross and completed His work.

But then, Jesus also said that we were to do the works that He had done and He solidified this with His blood and by giving us His holy Spirit and by stating that we were to become UNIFIED, as ONE through Him and His Father, as we read of in John 17!

And so here we are today, Resurrection Sunday, 2021; the day in which we come together to worship God and thank Him for the life, death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus the Christ and for His body that He gave in complete submission to the will of the Father!

And as we have assembled together today and every time that we assemble, it is for the glory of God and also for the strengthening of His body here on earth.

It is for His glory and our good.

It is not for the entertaining of the masses. It is not for making a few people look and sound big and important.

It is not about appeasing your particular wants and needs and your favorite style of worship and messages that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside!

It should never bring glory to man, but always to God!

Our manifesto, if you will, as to why we assemble, as His body, can be seen in Acts 2:42, which reads,

Acts 2:42 ESV

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

We are to assemble together, as His body, for the hearing and teaching of the Word of God and its doctrinal purity and completeness.

We are to assemble together for the fellowship the (kŏinōnia) with one another.

The word for fellowship ( kŏinōnia), means to come together, as Christians, with the common mind set of sharing our like minded faith, love and encouragement with one another!

In fact, the scriptures command us to be devoted to one another (Romans 12:10), honor one another (Romans 12:10), live in harmony with one another (Romans 12:16; 1 Peter 3:8), accept one another (Romans 15:7), serve one another in love (Galatians 5:13), be kind and compassionate to one another (Ephesians 4:32), admonish one another (Colossians 3:16), encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11; Hebrews 3:13), spur one another on toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24), offer hospitality (1 Peter 4:9), and love one another (1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 3:11; 3:23; 4:7; 4:11-12). That is what true biblical koinonia should look like.

And then we are to assemble for the breaking of bread, (which included communion) and finally, we are to assemble for prayer!

And in the verses following verse 42, in Acts 2:43-47, look at what was happening to the body of Christ.

Acts 2:43–47 ESV

43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Do you see anywhere in those verses that they held corporate meetings to discuss the happiness and contentment of the body?

That they held retreats to make certain groups content and comforted?

Do you see anywhere in the scriptures where Paul, who wrote like 2/3 of the epistles, talks about how to appease the body and make everyone want to keep coming back to the same building and make sure that they all have a smile of contentment on their faces as they leave?

NO! Paul was concerned with only ONE thing. He was concerned with growing true and faithful followers of Christ and keeping the TRUTH of the gospel message going forward.

That is why we are to come together. To unify and grow the kingdom for the King!

And according to I Corinthians 14:26, when we come together, there are gifts that we each posses, that are to used for the good of the body and the growth of the body, as Paul writes, “When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.”

Collectively, we are the body of Christ and we are also becoming the “bride of Christ”, who is awaiting the bridegroom’s return, so that we can be consummated as one for all eternity!

And the bride that He is coming back to claim, is not going to be some decked out, state of the art, high tech buildings, or any particular group or race or socio-economic faction!

His bride will NOT be a manmade denomination and she will not be linked to titles and accolades and liturgy and all of fluff of modern religion and the modern “church”.

His bride will be His true followers, united as ONE BODY, who have become washed and cleaned and made pure by His Word and who are loving and looking for His return!

That is who and what He is returning to claim!

One body, one people, who are assembled and called out of the world and into His glorious service!