January 3,

What It Means to Belong to the Church, Part One 2010

What it Means to Belong to the Church

Part One: Three Foundational Truths
Selected Scriptures
Sunday Morning
January 3, 2010
Church in the Boro
Rob Wilkerson

Introduction
In 2009 we embarked on the year of the gospel, expositing 1 Corinthians 15:1-11,
and taking all the time in the world it seemed to do it. And we finished the series.
This should have been life-changing for you. During this time we got a bird’s eye
view of the gospel, zooming down to its structural components, from the
foundation, to the toe plates, to the framework, to the roof, and the front door. We
couched the gospel in terms of a structure because of the eternal truth that is
underneath the church as its foundation, and all around it as its walls, and above it
as its roof. The front door has a huge welcome mat where Jesus stands with
outstretched hands of grace and mercy ready to receive any and all who hear His
voice and want to come in.

Then we applied the gospel through a three part sermon series on our church’s
mission statement: Reconciling Sinners to God, People to Each Other, and the World
to King Jesus. Following this, we applied this practically to and through our church’s
vision statement: Pursuing the humility, simplicity, clarity, liberty, ecstacy, charity,
unity, and the integrity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Each of these words in our
vision was unpacked with a text or series of texts to show what God says a church
should look like and what it should be pursuing in its character and ministry.

Now, finally…here we are on the first Sunday of 2010 and this will be the year of the
church. We will spend the year, or at least most of it, focusing on the things we
need to learn and hear in order to grow and mature as a church plant. Now that we
are under a biblical apostolic ministry of care and leadership, there is much for me
to do that now has a more particular focus and direction. This focus has taken
shape over the last six to seven months, and will continue to take more shape as we
move ahead.

Talking with Carl Herrington, our apostolic oversight with New Frontiers, we have
identified areas that need to be addressed about a local church from the Scriptures,
in order to shore up our foundation and add what has been lacking. From the start
I’ve attempted to plan that this next year would be a focus on the church anyway.
But with Carl’s help that focus has now been more clear than ever before. With the
help of a biblical wise, master builder we can move forward in the power of the Holy
Spirit with His Word and become a stronger, more stable church on the way to

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What It Means to Belong to the Church, Part One 2010

becoming led by a team of godly men, who in turn lead us to mature into a
reproducing church.

So over the next four months we will focus on four topics that are very necessary
for us where we are right now.

• In January we will focus on a series called, “What it Means to BELONG to

Church in the Boro.” In this month we want to examine and apply several
key biblical elements that lead us to properly understand what it means to
belong to a local church.

• In February we will look at, “What it Means to GIVE to church in the

Boro.” In this series we’ll look at the biblical concept of giving financially to
support a local church.

• In March, “What it Means to SERVE Church in the Boro.” Here, we’ll

look at what it really means to serve. Being a bondslave to Jesus Christ
means being a bondslave to His brothers and sisters, sons and daughters.

• And in April, “What it Means to LEAD Church in the Boro.” Here we’ll
examine the biblical basics about leadership in the local church, how it works,
how its structured, which will give somewhat of a roadmap on where we’re
going in the near future as we mature.

So, as we begin this series on what it means to belong to the local church let’s start
with some basics. If you’re taking notes, and I hope you are, you’ll want to get
these down so that you’re clear on what we believe here at Church in the Boro.
This in turn will tell you what is expected of you…by God Himself…and therefore by
Church in the Boro since we try to do things God’s way around here.

Now, I’m gonna share three things with you for a few minutes. And each of these
three things are like one of the three parts of an egg. Take one of the parts away
and you’ve got a mess. In an egg, you’ve got the shell, the white, and the yolk. If
you have an egg without a shell, then it’s messy. And according to the T.V. ads it
represents your brain on drugs if you put it in a frying pan. If you have an egg
without the egg white, then all you have is a shell holding a lot of yellow yolk, and
that’s nasty. And if you have an egg without a yolk, then you have a shell full of
egg white which is, as I understand it, the fattiest part of the egg. So you’ve got a
shell full of heart attack. Take away any of the three parts of the egg and you really
don’t have an egg any longer. You have some mutation created in a laboratory.

When it comes to the church, there are three truths you need to know. Take one of
the truths away and you really don’t have a church any more. You’ve got some
mutated religious organization which, unfortunately, resembles many local churches
today. In this ecclesiological egg, if you will, we have the following truths.

1. The Church belongs to King Jesus.

2. The Church is the body of Jesus Christ.
3. Christians Belong to the Church and Not the Other Way Around.

Church in the Boro Rob Wilkerson

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What It Means to Belong to the Church, Part One 2010

If you try to have a local church without the understanding that it belongs to King
Jesus, then people try to control it and simply use Jesus as a rallying point. If you
try to have a local church that doesn’t recognize that it is the body of Christ, then
they basically leave all the ministry stuff in church to the pastor or leaders. And if
you have a local church where people think that it belongs to them, then you simply
have a religious charity organization, where people can come and do what they
want with their little club and get a tax deduction for their charitable donations.
Any of this sound familiar?

Let me unpack each of these three truths that found and ground the church.

1. The Church Belongs to King Jesus.

This is THE most significant truth about the local church. Forget this one thing, and
you simply have a club where everybody’s nice to each other…most of the time…
and everyone’s comfortable as long as everyone has a say-so in what goes on. This
unfortunately leads to chaos and confusion most of the time, simply hiding behind
the mask of structure and order. You see, what happens more often than not, is
that a local church becomes an organization, run like a business, where everybody
has a job description and does what they’re supposed to do, but without any
genuine, fervent love for one another. Everyone’s nice to each other, but they don’t
really love each other. Politics abound in the church office area, and there’s always
a deacon or two, a trustee or two, an elder or two trying to wrestle control of the
church away from somebody else. And it’s usually because of something stupid
(like how they wear their hair, where their wife shops, what they drink) or
something stupid with a religious overtone (like what kind of worship style they lead
with, what kind of Bible they use, what kind of philosophy they have in children’s
ministry, etc.).

But when you understand that the church belongs to King Jesus…everything
changes. Let me share a few passages with you that will help you understand this
better. This is by no means an exhaustive trail of Bible verses on it. I’m only
choosing the ones that more readily came to my mind to prove the point.

• In Matthew 16:18, Christ told Peter, “upon this rock I will build MY church, and
all the powers of hell will not conquer it.” The Greek uses the possessive
genitive form of ekklesia here, the word for the church. It is JESUS’ church.
And when a local church understands fully that HE owns the church, and that
it belongs to Him, then and only then will a church experience thorough and
lasting victory over all the powers of hell. (So, by way of a little tidbit side
counsel here, if a local church doesn’t fully understand what it means to
belong to King Jesus, it shouldn’t wonder why it’s so bound up to demonic
forces, demonic doctrines, and demonic behavior!)

• In Acts 20, when Paul is giving the elders he ordained a final farewell, he
described the church as, “the church of God, which he obtained with his own
blood.” So here, not only is Christ referred to as God, since only Christ bled
for the church (hello, Kingdom Hall followers!...), but the clearest implication

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What It Means to Belong to the Church, Part One 2010

here is explicitly given to us that Jesus owns the church because (1) He is
God, and (2) He died for it, and (3) He obtained it. This means He owns it.

• In Ephesians 2:20, Paul emphasizes his doctrine of the church by beginning

his sentence, “We are HIS house…” Again, the possessive is used here.

• As an expression of his ownership, we find a description of His work in

Ephesians 4:15-16, where Paul refers to “Christ, who is the head of his body,
the church. Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly…”
(By way of another tidbit, this fitting together and growing up is
accomplished through men He has put in place in His church to lead it and
equip it, according to this passage. So for the movements today like the
house church movement and organic church movement that would have a
body without recognizable leaders, it’s like having a body without a head.
Because the Head expresses Himself through His leaders.)

1. The Church is the Body of Jesus Christ.

Paul, in particular, labors to make the point that the church is the body of Jesus
Christ. Now, to be certain, it is not the actual body of Jesus, because that was
transformed and glorified when Jesus ascended into heaven. But Paul uses the
concept or idea of a body to illustrate for us how the church is is supposed to
operate and function. Just as a body has one head and many parts, so Christ is the
head of that body, and Christians are all the other body parts. But as a whole, the
body in its entirety is an illustration of Jesus Christ. He isn’t here physically with a
body on earth any longer. But the way that He manifests Himself and represents
Himself is through a group of people He has called and saved. This group of people
represents Him and is therefore the spiritual body of Christ. And this body belongs
to King Jesus.

As with the first point, let’s explore a few passages to make this point clear. And
again, this will not be an exhaustive journey through all the proof texts.

• In Colossians 1:24 we have a very explicit clear statement about the truth
that the church is the body of Jesus. There, Paul writes, “Now I rejoice in my
sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in
Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.”

• In 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, Paul is dealing with the idolatry that is present in

the Corinthian church. To make his point, he asks them a few questions.
“The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of
Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of
Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we
all partake of the one bread.” Communion itself, the very act of taking bread
and eating it, and taking wine and drinking it, is an act which preaches the
truth that we are the body of Christ. And it is in participating together in this

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 January 3,
What It Means to Belong to the Church, Part One 2010

holy act, that we are mystically and spiritually unified together. This makes
communion an absolutely amazing event that puts a magnifying glass on the
truth that the church is Jesus’ body.

• Paul drives this body imagery home harder two chapters later in the same
letter. In 1 Corinthians 12:12, he writes, “For just as the body is one and has
many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one
body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one
body…and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist
of one member but of many.”

• A few verses later, in verse 18, Paul writes, “But as it is, God arranged the
members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.” This passage makes
it clear that not only is the body a representation of Christ on earth, but that
He owns this body, the church, which is implied in the fact that He arranges
them as He chooses.

• Then a few verses later, in verse 27, we have another explicitly clear
statement of our truth here. “Now YOU are the body of Christ, and
individually members of it.” Did you get my emphasis? YOU…each of you…
and YOU…altogether, are the body of Christ.

• Moving on into Ephesians, a theology of the church, we find in 1:22-23, that

God, “put all things under [Christ’s] feet and gave [Christ] as head over all
things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of Him who fills all in
all.”

• And returning to Ephesians 4 we find that in verse 12, the church is described
as the body of Christ which is to be built up through equipping the saints to
do the work of ministry.

• In Ephesians 5:23, Paul uses this illustration again. “For the husband is the
head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is
himself its Savior.”

• And finally, Paul basically repeats himself in Colossians 1:18 where he writes,
“And he is the head of the body, the church…”

For my purposes in this message, I am merely trying to solidify in your mind the
FACT that you are in a group of people whom Christ chose to be His bride, and that
you are His body, His representative on earth…not each of you individually, but you
all altogether. And these two truths uphold the larger truth that Church in the Boro
is part of the body of Christ which belongs to HIM. This leads us to the final truth
this morning.

1. Christians Belong to the Church, and Not the Other Way

Around.

Church in the Boro Rob Wilkerson

 January 3,
What It Means to Belong to the Church, Part One 2010

Perhaps this is the yolk of our ecclesiological egg this morning. The egg does not
belong to the yolk. The yolk belongs to the egg. It’s as ridiculous as the cartoon
Garfield where the cat continually – and with a rather normal arrogance usually
present in our feline friends – speaks implies that he is the master of his owner John.
Your cat or my dog doesn’t own us! We own it! It belongs to us! We chose the
animal for our pleasure, and our enjoyment. Yet the arrogance of a cat continues to
confound me! “How dare you treat me like you own me!” And perhaps they are
right about their assessment of you, if you own a cat, if only reflected in how you
run to meet every need at every beck and call!

The relationship some people have with their pets is weird. It gets all backwards.
And it happens in the church as well, Christians acting as if they own Jesus. So we
have Health, Wealth, and Prosperity preachers reversing this thing, acting as if
Jesus is some genie in a bottle that can be conjured up with biblical sayings that
they really treat like magical incantations. In that line of theology, Jesus belongs to
them instead of them to Jesus.

And in Southern Baptist churches where I grew up, I was always told that the
preacher’s job was to keep people holy, and the deacons’ job was to keep him poor.
There was always this power struggle in every Southern Baptist church where I
grew up – a political power struggle between the deacons and the pastor, or the
largest family in the church, and the pastor. And it was hardly ever with the
associate pastor, or the youth pastor, or the music pastor. It was always with the
lead pastor, the senior pastor, or whatever you wanna call him. And why? Because
they sincerely believed that it was “their” church. In fact, many of those whom I
once pastored in a Southern Baptist church referred to it is “our church.” I recall
this really old fellow who had to get a round with a walker on tennis balls stand up
in a church business meeting one Sunday afternoon and yell, “We need to take back
our church by force!” Perhaps he watched too much Star Wars and referred to that
kind of force, because he was in no condition to take anything from anyone except
their time

When I read the Bible I see something completely different than what I grew up
with. Perhaps you do to. Take Acts 2:41 for instance. Here’s what Luke wrote
about what happened after Peter’s sermon. “Those who believed what Peter said
were baptized and [were] added to the church – about three thousand in all.
They joined with the other believers…” Immediately you’ll see here the
emphasis the Holy Spirit put on the Luke’s wording with the passive voice. The
Christians were added to the church, and not the other way around. The church
wasn’t added to them. That sounds ridiculous. And then they joined with the other
believers, and not the other way around.

Later on in Acts 12 when Herod is arresting disciples and killing them, Luke writes in
verse 1 that, “Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the
church.” Interesting isn’t it? That Luke writes this the way he does? He clearly
understands, as well as even Herod the evil king, that Christians belong to the
church, and not the other way around.

So from the start, from the very birth of the New Testament church, it’s clear that
the concept

Church in the Boro Rob Wilkerson

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What It Means to Belong to the Church, Part One 2010

of the local church is one of IT owning us, of us belonging to IT, and not the other
way around. We join with IT. The church does not join with us. We are grafted into
IT, according to Paul’s description in Romans 11. It is not grafted into us. We are a
branch connected to the vine, as Jesus describes us in John 15. The vine isn’t
grafted into the branch. Again, these are all strange and weird ideas. Yet look how
many churches and Christians think this way? And those who do are started and
planted with the very seeds of their own destruction and split built right in.

a. This means that the church does NOT belong to Christians. You
cannot own the thing that owns you. If the church is Jesus’ body, and if
you belong to Jesus, you belong to His body. Therefore, you cannot tell
Jesus what to do, and you in turn cannot tell His church what to do.

b. This means that Christians do not control the church. You cannot
control the thing that owns you. Again, if the church is the body of Jesus,
and if you belong to Jesus, and if you in turn belong to His body, then both
of those – Jesus and His body, the church – control you, and not the other
way around. This is particularly helpful for us as a church plant now, and
especially a plant filled with people, most of whom were already
converted and had some sort of churchy traditions and experiences prior
to joining our effort here. If you came from a background like mine or
perhaps similar in many respects, you need to know that you cannot and
will not control Church in the Boro. It is already taken. It’s under the
control of King Jesus. So if you’ve been looking for some religious club to
get involved and eventually lead or get some kind of control over because
it makes you feel all spiritual, it probably isn’t going to happen for you
here…ever. We don’t want you here if you don’t want King Jesus to be in
charge and do His thing. That’s how we roll here.

c. There are several implications of this for us here in South

Georgia. And these make most of us uncomfortable, because they are
NOT the way we’ve done things before or experienced things before in
the traditional churches from where we’ve all come.

i. These truths are the reason why a congregational form of church

government is not biblical. This is a form of government where the
people exercise full control over the life and decisions of the local
church. My grandma once told me that she thought the Baptist church
was the purest form of democracy on planet earth. And she was proud
of that!

But this and all other similar beliefs and practices like it stem from an
inane, human desire to possess and control something else, and to
avoid at all costs being controlled by something or someone else.
We’re rebellious by nature, remember? So by nature, we’ll do
whatever we can to avoid accountability to someone else. Yet it’s the
very opposite in nature for the kingdom of God, isn’t it? We’re ruled by
a King, and His name is Jesus. In a kingdom, a King rules. And the
King says that there’s happiness and blessedness in being poor in

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What It Means to Belong to the Church, Part One 2010

spirit, in submitting to His rule, in coming underneath His authority for

His protection and guidance.

We’ll get to this later in April, but for now suffice it to say that the Bible
teaches that a church is owned and controlled by King Jesus, and He
has given the privilege and responsibility of leading and overseeing
and shepherding it to men of His choosing.

ii. These truths are the reason why it is unbiblical for every member to
NOT be involved, giving, serving, and ministering in some capacity. It
is unbiblical for a local church to become a place where 80% of the
work is done by 20% of the people. That’s the old 80/20 rule that is
true in almost every local church. It’s a place where 100% of the
people who belong to it or attend regularly are doing 100% of the
work, together.

There are and can be no bystanders in this local church. If the church
owns us and we belong to it, then we are at the beck and call of the
local church. We are under its authority and leadership, following its
design, and expanding its boundaries and borders.

The church is an “every member ministry” where everyone is involved,

participating in some way to grow it, mature it, equip it, build it, and
serve it. Remember, if the church is the body of Jesus Christ, then we
are serving HIM in reality, and not just an organization. Forgetting this
fact almost always entails burnout of some kind or degree among
pastors, leaders, and volunteers in the local church. When we’re
working for an organization, we forget we’re working for the King
Himself. And without this heartbeat, the “ministry” dies and slow
death, and we have to keep propping it up with more recruitment,
volunteers, money, energy, and resources.

But in a local church, everybody has a heartbeat for the King, because
they know they are laboring for HIM, for HIS name sake, for HIS glory…
and not ours…and not for the glory of the organization. And when we
labor and work with this mindset, everyone gets involved,
participating and serving, because they know that they are really
serving Jesus Christ Himself.

Conclusion
Based on these two implications, there are two applications with which to close this
message. Each application flows naturally and logically from the implications.
Remember two words here: Submission and Service.

1. Develop a Heart of Submission

Church in the Boro Rob Wilkerson

 January 3,
What It Means to Belong to the Church, Part One 2010

First, if a local church is NOT a congregationally led organization, but a kingdom

built and ruled by Jesus, who entrusted His men to lead it, then the best attitude
and heart toward such a biblical concept is that of submission and obedience.

These are dirty words in our society. And they are much dirtier in most churches,
strangely. Because the church is a kingdom, ruled by Jesus and led by His men. So
why then are so many churches adamantly opposed to submission to authority? I
venture to say that it may be because many churches are not filled with people who
are truly converted. Because to be truly a Christian, you see, there is a heart
transplant which takes out the old heart of stone – that hates submission – and is
replaced with a heart of flesh – that is soft, pliable, moldable, bendable, and
submissive to authority. Bowing to King Jesus is the very first response of the
regenerated heart. Bending the knee to King Jesus is the first reaction to a heart
that’s been born again.

The apostle John told us at the end of his first epistle, in 1 John, that we ought to
obey Jesus’ commands, and truly believe that they are not burdensome to us. So if
you think that the reason you don’t like to obey or follow orders is because they’re
too hard…well…all I can say to that is, “no they’re not.” Jesus’ yoke is easy and His
burden is light. Take HIS yoke on yourself and learn from Him because He’s a meek
and humble Savior.

Christians are admonished to be persuaded by their leaders and submit to their

leadership, in Hebrews 13:17. The reason for this is that the leaders watch over
your souls and are accountable to God. The writer there says, “Give them reason to
do this joyfully and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit.”
Yet too often, local churches are filled with people who bring sorrow to their leaders
instead of joy. And as a result, they get no benefit from their actions, but instead
turn around and blame the lack of benefit on their leaders, instead of taking
responsibility for their own rebellion.

When it comes right down to it, we are all to be submitted to one another anyway.
Paul taught us in Ephesians 5:21 that we should submit to one another out of
reverence for Christ. There is this sense in which we are all accountable to each
other, holding each other up, encouraging each other, praying for each other,
counseling each other, admonishing each other, teaching each other, etc. We are
our brother’s keeper, contrary to Cain’s attitude when God asked him where his
murdered brother was. It is only a heart of rebellion – and perhaps an unregenerate
heart at that – which does not want to submit to any form of authority…inside the
local church, or outside of it.

Do a check in your heart by asking yourself a few questions. If you’re a single

person, ask yourself whether or not you were truly submissive to your parents
growing up. If you were not, you’ll probably find that you are not being submissive
to the local church and its leadership now. If you’ve been converted, do the check
still. It may show that there are areas of your life that still need addressing since
you’ve been converted.

And if you’re married, and you’re a wife, ask yourself if you truly, happily, joyfully,
and willingly submit to your husband. If not, you are more than likely not submitted

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to other believers in the local church, nor to its leadership. And if you’re a husband,
ask yourself if you truly, happily, joyfully, and willingly love your wife as Christ loves
the church. Ask yourself if you live with your wife in an understanding way as 1
Peter 3:7 teaches. If not, then more than likely you don’t love your fellow believers
in the church the way Jesus does. And you probably are not very joyful about living
with your fellow believers and your church leadership in an understanding way.

Generally, I’ve found in my experience that submission is not an object issue but a
heart issue. That means that the one who has a problem with submission generally
doesn’t have a problem with the person to whom they are submitting, but a
problem with submitting in general. God wants to free you from that this morning.
He asks you to lift up your chains of bondage and your handcuffs of rebellion to Him
and He will break them and free you this morning, giving you a heart of humble,
joyful, willing surrender to His authority and leadership.

2. Develop an Attitude of Service

Now, the second application flows from the second implication, that a biblical local
church is an “every member ministry.” If this is true, then your attitude needs to be
one of service. If you belong to the church, which is the body of Jesus, then you are
a servant of IT, and not the other way around, as we said earlier.

Service has a handful of Greek words in the NT. But the most important one is
diakonia, from which we get our word deacon. One of the largest usages of this
word in the Bible defines a group of people by this term who’ve been captured in a
battle or in a war. How appropriate then for this title to be given to us who’ve been
captured by King Jesus in His war against the devil and sin. Christ won this battle
and you and I are the spoils of His battle. But we are not captors in the same
human sense as those we find throughout Scripture. Those were treated as
property. We are treated as Jesus’ friends. He calls us His brothers and sisters.
This is truly unlike any other sort of servant/slave relationship on earth.

I love the attitude that flows from this, according to Paul in his counsel to the
Colossians. In 3:22 and following, imagine if you will that Paul is writing about how
you should view your relationship to Jesus Christ and therefore to His body, the
church. “You slaves must obey… in everything you do. Try to please them all the
time, not just when they are watching you. Obey them willingly because of your
reverent fear of the Lord. Work hard at whatever you do, as though you were
working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you
an inheritance as your reward and the Master you are serving is Christ.” Amen!
What a praiseworthy, biblical attitude toward Jesus, and toward one another.

Then in the parallel text of Ephesians 6:5 and following, we should serve one
another with “deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve
Christ. Work hard, but not just to please your masters when they are watching. As
slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. Work with enthusiasm, as
though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the
Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do, whether we are slaves or free.”

Church in the Boro Rob Wilkerson

 January 3,
What It Means to Belong to the Church, Part One 2010

Again, what a glorious heart-attitude toward one another because it is having that
attitude toward Jesus Himself.

Here’s what this looks like in some very practical areas.

• In Matthew 18:5 and Mark 9:37 and Luke 9:48, if you welcome and serve little
children, you are welcoming and serving King Jesus Himself.

• In Matthew 10:42 and Mark 9:41, just giving another believer a cup of cold
water is giving it to Jesus who promises you will not lose your reward.

• In Matthew 25, feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the
naked, and befriending the prisoner is doing all of these things to Jesus.
Here’s how He said it.

“Then the King will save to those on the right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by
my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world. For I was hungry, and you fed ME. I was thirsty, and you gave ME a
drink. I was a stranger, and you invited ME into your home. I was naked,
and you gave ME clothing. I was sick, and you cared for ME. I was in prison,
and you visited ME.’ Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we
ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to
drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you
clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?’ And the
King will tell them, ‘I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these
my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’”

What this means, in summary, is that every single person you run into is to be
treated as if they were King Jesus Himself. And if they are His disciples, if they are
Christians, then in a very real but spiritual sense, you ARE actually ministering to
Jesus Himself, because they are part of the body of Jesus Christ. How you treat one
another is how you are treating Jesus Christ Himself. There is this very real, but
very mystical, spiritual relationship Christians have with Jesus so that they are
inseparable. That’s why Paul is shocked by believers who sleep with prostitutes,
because when you join your body with that woman or man, you are also joining the
prostitute’s body with Jesus! This stuff is real! We totally have no idea what we’re
messing with here.

And conversely, we totally have no idea what kinds of blessings we’re missing out
on when we give up opportunities to serve one another and submit to authority. We
totally have no idea. But we should. And now you do. And how you can move
forward and be free today from the blindness that causes this. Spiritual blindness in
this area is what makes us pass by people who need help. Spiritual blindness is
what makes us refuse to help others who are in need. Spiritual blindness is what
causes us to neglect opportunities for doing good and serving everybody, and
especially those who are in fellowship with Christ.

There is unique oneness we all share with King Jesus that cannot and must not be
missed. When we serve one another, we are actually serving King Jesus Himself.
And when we submit to authority, we are actually submitting to King Jesus Himself.

Church in the Boro Rob Wilkerson

 January 3,
What It Means to Belong to the Church, Part One 2010

So let us repent of our old ways that are thrown upon us by our culture, and rejoice
in the biblical, blessed, joyful, privileged relationship we have with King Jesus and
with one another.

Church in the Boro Rob Wilkerson