Trinity Baptist Church

The Anatomy of the Church

The Flesh

 

We are almost through with our anatomy class.  We’ve been studying the anatomy of the church and we’ve learned that, first of all, there has to be a skeleton. That is, that which gives it form and foundation. Those are the bottom line, non-negotiable, basic foundational truths upon which it must be formed and framed.

 

Then there must be flowing through the through the church certain internal systems. We called them spiritual attitudes and we looked at sixteen in particular.  Then last time we talked about the muscles.  They are the things that allow us to function and get the systems working. 

 

Today, I want us to think about the flesh.  The flesh is really just the outside covering.  It’s what puts a face on the bones, internal systems and muscles. 

 

So just to be clear, we have this internal structure of a proper understanding of God and the authority of Scripture, resulting in believing and applying the right things, personal purity and respect for God-given leaders. 

 

Further, we are seeking to develop the mind of Christ by having the right attitudes flowing through us such as love and unity and humility and forgiveness.  And we are committed to using our spiritual strength for things like preaching and teaching, ministry, worship and prayer.

 

But how do we package all of that for presentation to the world and usability to God?  What about the flesh?"  In some ways, it really doesn’t matter.  After all, God said a long time ago, “man looks on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart.”

 

And at its very core, a church is what it is at its heart.  And if it has the right skeletal structure and is developing the mind of Christ so that it functions in the way God designed it to function and is accomplishing what God put it here to do, it really doesn’t matter what name is on the door or how it arranges its schedule or presents itself to the lost. 

 

The primary thing is not what it looks like on the outside or how its programs take shape. It’s really not that big a deal if it has traditional Sunday School or cell groups or small group Bible study. 

 

It might choose to meet on Tuesday evening rather than Wednesday and use choruses rather than hymns.  It can have a formal visitation program or market itself on the internet.  There are all kinds of ways to “do church” and the important thing is not what it looks like, but who it is and what it does.

 

And unfortunately many of us evaluate ministries by what they look like on the outside rather than what they are and what they believe and embrace and what they believe to be their function. 

 

And so in that regard, the “flesh” is really not all that important.  God uses all kinds of churches in all kinds of settings that look all kinds of different from one another and gets a whole lot done for the kingdom by doing it that way. 

 

 

We do our ministries in a certain way.  We are, by most standards, a traditional Southern Baptist church.  And many people like that and it’s what they are looking for. 

 

But some of our partnership ministries are entirely different.  Rawhide, for instance, is nothing like us in the flesh.  Their front door to the church is their roping arena.  That’s how they attract people. 

 

They don’t have a traditional Sunday School.  Their ministry approach is much different.  But internally there is very little difference between them and us.  We believe the same things about God and Scripture and purity and doctrine and leadership.

 

We have the same internal systems.  We are still required to be obedient and love one another and have the mind of Christ.  The only difference is in the flesh.

 

The same is true with Tri-Church and Acapulco and Africa.  We all look uniquely different from the outside.  But the outside appearance is not what is important.  The internal similarities and structure and function are what unite us as the church of the Living God. 

 

The fleshing out just happens when all the stuff on the inside is right.

 

Now, having said that, I don’t want to minimize the significance of the flesh.  It is an extremely important concept Scripturally speaking.  And I will tell you I had a harder time with this concept than with any of the others we’ve talked about. 

Part of the reason for that is because “the flesh” is a dirty word in the Bible in many ways. 

 

In many different texts we are encouraged to deny the flesh and crucify the flesh and avoid the works of the flesh. We are not to live fleshly lives.

 

And I understand that usage of the word.  But that is really talking about a system of thinking that is opposed to God. So I certainly don’t want to be misunderstood as referencing that when I talk about the flesh of the church. 

 

But I also want to remind you that one of the very heartbeats of the life of Christ is called the “incarnation”.  

 

And it is simply the teaching that He came into this world and took upon Himself “flesh”.  The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  And He lived His life in a human body.  He had real hands and feet and skin and a nose and mouth and just like any other man, he existed in the flesh.

 

And it is that very aspect of His earthly existence that we duplicate as the church.  We are “the body of Christ”.  And just as surely as Jesus lived and breathed and walked on this earth in a human body back then, He is still doing it today through the church.  So in that regard, it is extremely important how the outside is presented to the world and before God.

 

And that’s what I want to spend a little bit of time today presenting to you as we think about the flesh. 

Not the programs and projects of the church, but your life and mind representing Jesus in the world.

Now if we are going to be the body of Christ and represent Jesus to the world, it is important that we understand why Jesus came and put on flesh to begin with.  I don’t have time to develop all that could be said about that so let me just point you to one portion of Scripture to get us started.

 

Luke 4:16-20

 

Now there we find in one concise statement Jesus’ explanation about why He came in the flesh.  On a certain Sabbath in His hometown of Nazareth, Jesus goes to the synagogue, they hand Him a copy of the writing of Isaiah, He turns to a certain place in Isaiah (chapter 61:1-2), reads these verses, hands the scroll to an attendant, sits down and delivers an eight word message:  “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”.

 

In other words, the One who was the subject of the prophecy is Me.  And in quoting those verses He gives us the reason for His coming in the flesh.

 

There are three primary targets:

 

 

And those are our objectives as well.  That is to be the ministry of the church.  If that’s what Jesus was all about when He walked around in a body, that’s what the body is to be busy with still.

 

Therefore every “skin” that we stretch across the structure and systems and muscle is to have one of those three objectives in mind. 

Whether it is Sunday School or youth ministry, FAITH Riders, Senior Adults, helping people who’ve lost loved ones, whatever it is, if it is the flesh and bones of the church that is doing it, it is to motivated by one of those three responsibilities.

 

And by the way, it is not just the organized programs of the church that function under those mandates, but every individual Christian who houses the person of Jesus Christ.  You and I individually are His body as well. 

 

So let’s take a look at those three and see how the flesh is to express itself.  First of all, Jesus put on flesh and came to this world to   

 

 

Verse 18a

 

Now we need to make sure we are clear about something.  The reference to the “poor” here is not about financial condition.  While Jesus certainly did care about the poor, and in fact was poor Himself by man’s standards, you have to look elsewhere to find His instruction about that ministry. 

 

This verse is about the message of salvation and sharing the gospel.  To understand what Jesus meant listen to what He said in Matthew 5. Jesus is beginning his “Sermon on the Mount” and the section we know as the “Beatitudes.”

 

Matthew 5:3

 

The word “poor” here implies hopelessness of spirit.

 It literally means “having nothing to offer on one’s own accord.” This is talking about spiritual bankruptcy.  It is the realization that on our own, we have nothing to offer God. We can’t come to God and strike a deal or offer Him what we won.  We have nothing. 

 

Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of the Bible called The Message translates this verse: “You’re blessed when you are at the end of your rope.” (Mt. 5:3)

 

The picture here is reaching into your spiritual pockets, and you turn them inside out and all you’ve got are little lint balls. You will never be happy in life until you realize you’re spiritually busted and you need God in your life.

 

And that is the crux of becoming a Christian.  Salvation begins the moment you realize that you are a sinner and that you have offended a holy and righteous God. In fact, that’s why many will never be saved.  They will never be willing to admit their poverty spiritually speaking. 

 

But listen to Romans 3:23:  “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

 

That’s where we must begin.  It is then you understand you are deserving of death because of your sins and you are hopeless and helpless to save yourself.

 

Romans 6:23 tells us “the wages of sin is death…” This will lead you to cry out for forgiveness.

 

 

And the message that Jesus put on flesh to deliver is that you need a Savior and He came to be that Savior for you. Jesus and Jesus alone can deliver you from your sin.

 

Paul wrote to the church at Rome: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

 

Jesus died on the cross, for our sins, in our place so that we could spend eternity with him in heaven. That’s why the rest of Romans 6:23 is so exciting. 

 

“The wages of sin is death.  I’m busted.  I have nothing to offer.  I am a part of that “all” who have sinned and fallen short.  “But the gift of God is eternal life. (Romans 6:23).

 

The remember the story of the woman caught in adultery?  The Pharisees drug her through the streets of town to Jesus and demand that He explain the teaching of the Mosaic law in regard to one caught in adultery. 

 

Now understand, they didn’t really care about the law or the woman.  They were after Jesus.   After all, she was guilty. She had been caught in the act of adultery. She had no defense. Her accusers were numerous. If they had wanted to stone her, all they had to do was do it. 

 

But do you remember what Jesus did?  He stopped down and wrote in the dirt and said, if you are without sin, go ahead and stone her.  They dropped their rocks and left. 

 

What do we see there?  We see this ministry of preaching the gospel to the poor. 

 

She was poor in spirit.  She was in poverty spiritually speaking.  Her life had nothing to offer the Lord at that point. She was hopeless.

 

But, because Jesus had come to proclaim good news to those poor in spirit like this woman and because His mission was to show her , Jesus said unto her, “Where are your accusers? You now have none and neither do I accuse you. Go, your sins have been forgiven.” This is what Jesus came to do in your life this morning!

 

And that’s God’s design for us.  Unfortunately we like to spend our time being critical and condemning rather than preaching the gospel of Jesus. 

 

Could you imagine Jesus saying some of the things that you and I say about others?  Could you imagine Him having the body language that we portray?

 

Most of us would conclude that Jesus would never act the way we do, or say the things we do or have the attitudes that we have, and yet we do all the time. 

 

Listen:  We are Him as far as the world is concerned.  His voice, His actions, His hands, His attitudes are to be seen through us.  We are His body and it is our responsibility, not to condemn and judge, but to preach the Gospel.

 

There is a second thing that Jesus put on flesh to do and that is

 

 

Isaiah prophesied that the coming Messiah would come to “heal or bind up the brokenhearted.”

 

The word broken comes from the Hebrew word “SHABAR” meaning “crushed into pieces, shattered, bruised, disconnected.”

 

Brokenhearted literally means “to shatter one’s strength.” Now what do yo do with things that are broken?  You have to fix them.  They must be mended.  The mission of Jesus was to come and to “bind up” which means “to heal, or to set right, as in a broken bone.”

 

Broken is a good word to describe people all around us. I would dare say that right in this room and right in our own church family there are many who are broken. 

 

Some are experiencing a broken heart; maybe a broken marriage or home; perhaps you are experiencing a broken relationship; others are here with broken spirits and a broken will; while others are broken financially.

 

There are people whose hearts have been broken to pieces by pain, who have been deceived, abused, and let down by people in their lives. These are people who are suffering under crushing grief and are bound by bad memories. They are hopeless and see no point in living. I may be describing someone you know or I may be describing you. 

 

 

You are the one who has fallen.  You are the one who is broken down, beat down, used up, pushed aside, caste out, abused, and forgotten.

 

Listen to this good news about how much your life matters…Jesus came to “bind up and heal the brokenhearted.” He is the great physician who can make you whole again.

 

Listen to God’s voice:

“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18)

 

Listen:  I want you to know that while the Lord is always near, this verse is teaching us that when we are brokenhearted, He gets even closer.  When we are crushed, the Lord gets closer. His presence is powerfully present in the lives of shattered saints.

 

And that ought to be true of the church.  It ought to be our hands and feet and hugs and words that the Lord uses to comfort the broken hearted.  That’s why He came and it’s just what He uses His body to accomplish. 

 

Then there is a third thing that Jesus came in the flesh to do and that is

 

 

Verse 18

 

Jesus is all about freedom.  You will notice the use of the word liberty occurs twice in this verse. Other translations will use words like freedom and recovery and release. 

 

All three of these words talk about the freedom Jesus gives our lives in this world when we place our trust and faith in Him!

 

The message the church has to offer is Jesus offers you emancipation from the things of this world which can hold you captive, bind you, and rob you of all God has for you! 

 

It is a message of freedom from

 

 

Jesus proclaimed a message of “liberty to the captives”.  A lot of people are in “bondage.” They are captive to their own desires and will. Whether it is alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, or eating addictions, fear of the future or of failure, or bitterness and anger, some of you here are so bound by the desires of your own life that for you there is no freedom.

 

You live your life in “quiet desperation” even within the walls of the church. You want to be freed from that hurt, habit, or hang up. You want to turn your back on temptation and failure.

 

This is exactly why Jesus came. Jesus came to bring you out of that captivity. Deliverance and recovery begins with a personal decision to let Jesus led you out of the prison you are in this morning.

 

“Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:34-36)

Many of us here today have been set free by the love of Jesus Christ. But there are more that are still held in bondage. No matter what prison Satan has tried to lock you, remember, Jesus has the key. What sin is holding you hostage? Ask Jesus to set you free this morning. You can be free from yourself!

 

It is a message of freedom from

 

 

“recovery of sight to the blind”

 

In Luke 7 we find an episode in the earthly ministry of Jesus where John the Baptist is inquiring as to whether or not Jesus is the Promised Messiah or should they continue the search. 

 

It seems as though John the Baptist was going through a period of doubt and depression.  It’s hard to blame him.  He has been faithfully preaching, but is now in prison and knew he was headed for death.. He wondered if Jesus was really who He claimed to be. And he sends these messengers to Jesus to make sure He is the real deal. 

 

Listen to Jesus response.

 

Luke 7:22-23

 

What’s going on there?  No doubt physical blindness was being cured.  But John’s spiritual blindness was taken care of as well.  He was receiving confirmation that he was on track in worshipping Jesus as the Messiah.  This one who can heal the physically blind can heal spiritual doubt and confusion as well. 

 

Do you know someone who seems to have spiritual scales on their eyes? They just cannot seem to see what you see and it frustrates you greatly. Don’t give up hope. Satan wants to blind us to the fact that our lives matter to the Lord. He wants to prevent us from seeing what Jesus is trying to do in our lives. However, we must not give up hope!

 

It is the churches responsibility to take away that doubt.  We are the object lesson.  People are to look at us and be convinced that Jesus really is the Messiah. 

 

John Newton knew what that meant.  He was a godless man who was a part of the slave trade in the early 1800s. He was given to fits of anger and drunkenness. But then, Jesus Christ opened his eyes. He became an abolitionist and wrote many of the hymns we sing today. In his most famous stanza he describes the process of receiving his spiritual sight:

 

“Amazing grace/how sweet the sound/that saved a wretch like me/I once was lost/but now I’m found/was blind but now I see.”

 

Freedom from bondage, blindness and

 

 

The King James Version translates this verse “to set at liberty them that are bruised.” I love that translation. This world is a difficult place sometimes. This is true even for the Christian. We are going to “battered and bruised” from time to time. Maybe it is Satan trying to shoot down your self-esteem, or relational ruptures that hurt your heart.

Remember Satan is a “thief who comes to steal, kill, and destroy.” (John 10:10) How do we stand in the midst of these storms that batter us? Listen to the encouraging voice of the Lord: “The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. (Psalm 9:9)

 

And church we are to be busy ministering to the bruised.  This place and our presence ought to be a comfort.  It ought to be welcoming and tender.  We need to be easy with folks. 

 

Do you have some spiritual bruises this morning? Remember that to Jesus and He wants to be your stronghold. Have you found your shelter in Him? What is that one thing you have battling? Let’s ask the Lord to shelter us from it today!

 

Jesus came to preach the gospel to the poor, minister to the hurting, offer freedom to the bound and finally

 

4. Proclaim the Acceptable Year of The Lord  

 

verse 19

 

This is a reference to the OT year of Jubilee. You can read about the Year of Jubilee in Leviticus 25. This was an event that took place every 15 years. A trumpet would be sounded throughout the land. All slaves would be set free, all debts would be forgiven, the land was allowed to rest, and this was a time of fresh new beginnings and starting over!

 

When Jesus came to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, He is not reinstituting the year of Jubilee.

He is says that He is the fulfillment of the promise spoken by Isaiah. Jesus is the Jubilee! He came to be the deliverer, the healer, the King of our hearts.

 

In a verse that every Christian should memorize, Paul proclaims our freedom in Christ: “There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1) .”

 

Our sin debts were paid in full the moment Jesus died on the cross. In Him we are set free to have an abundant, meaningful, purposeful life. Jesus set us free from the fivefold damage of sin: poverty of spirit, broken hearts, imprisonment, blindness, and oppression.

 

Can you think of a better message to share with the world than that?  That’s why Jesus came.  And those are our objectives as well.  That is to be the ministry of the church.  If that’s what Jesus was all about when He walked around in a body, that’s what the body is to be busy with still.

 

Therefore every “skin” that we stretch across the structure and systems and muscle is to have one of those three objectives in mind.  And as individuals that is our responsibility as well. 

 

That’s why “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”, and that’s why he’s given us flesh as well. 

 

Toward the beginning of the 20^th century, God began a great work in China.  One of the great workers who came out of that time was Nee Shu-tsu.

 

 

Nee Shu-tsu, whose English name was Henry Nee, was born of second-generation Christian parents in Foochow, China in 1903. His paternal grandfather studied at the American Congregational College in Foochow and became the first Chinese pastor among the Congregationalists in northern Fukien province.

 

Nee Shu-tsu was consecrated to the Lord before his birth. Desiring a son, his mother had prayed to the Lord, saying, “If I have a boy, I will present him to You.” The Lord answered her prayer with the birth of a son. His father later impressed this point upon him, saying, “Before you were born, your mother promised to present you to the Lord.”

 

Nee Shu-tsu was exceptionally intelligent. From his entrance into elementary school through his graduation from the Anglican Trinity College in Foochow, he ranked first in his class as well as in his school. With many grand dreams and plans for his future, he could have been a great success in the world.

 

But in 1920 at the age of seventeen and after considerable struggle, Nee Shu-tsu was dynamically saved while in high school. At the moment of his salvation, his plans for his future were entirely abandoned.

 

He testified, “From the evening I was saved, I began to live a new life, for the life of the eternal God had entered into me.” Later, when he was called by the Lord to carry out His commission, he adopted the English name Watchman and the Chinese name To-sheng, which means “the sound of a watchman’s rattle.”

He considered himself to be a watchman raised up to sound out a warning call in the dark night.  Watchman Nee was a powerful tool in the hand of the Lord.  He suffered in many ways including sickness, tuberculosis as well as opposition from fellow Christians and the Chinese government. 

 

He was eventually arrested in 1952, imprisoned in 1956 and died in confinement in 1972.  He was allowed no visitors except his wife during those 15 years. Before his departure, he left a piece of paper under his pillow which had several lines of big words he had written with a shaking hand.

 

He wanted to testify to the truth and did so in his freedom as well as his captivity until his final breath. He wrote — "Christ is the Son of God who died for the redemption of sinners and resurrected after three days. This is the greatest truth in the universe. I die because of my belief in Christ. Watchman Nee."

 

He was a prolific writer.  One of his books was called

“The Normal Christian Life”.  Listen to how it ends:

 

"I always like to think of the words of the great woman of Shunam speaking about the prophet whom she had observed but whom she did not know very well.  She said, `Behold now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God which passes by us continually,' 2 Kings 4:9."

 

"It was not what Elisha said or did that conveyed that impression, it was what he was. By his merely passing by she could detect something, she could see.

 

What are people sensing about you? We may leave many kinds of impressions. We may leave the impression that we are clever, that we are gifted, that we are this or that or the other. But no impression left by Elisha was an impression of Elisha, it was an impression of God.

 

This matter of impact upon others turns on one thing, and that is the working of the cross in us with regard to the pleasure of the heart of God.

It demands that I seek His pleasure, that I seek to satisfy Him only and I do not mind how much it costs me to do so. There must be something, a willingness to yield, a breaking and a pouring out of everything to Him which gives release to that fragrance of Christ and produces in other lives an awareness of need, drawing them out and on to know the Lord.

 

This is what I feel to be the heart of everything. The gospel has as its one object the producing in us sinners of a condition that will satisfy the heart of our God in order that He may have that. We come to Him with all we have, all we are, yes, even the most cherished things in our spiritual experience and we make known to Him, Lord, I am willing to let go of all of this for You, not just for Your work, not for Your children, not for anything else but all together and only for Yourself."

 

And then he says this, "O to be wasted, it is a blessed thing to be wasted for the Lord."

 

Let's pray.