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Remember Who(se) You Are (Part Four) “Church Works Best When We Stay Focused on Christ” Colossians 1:18 |
January 29, 2006 Pastor Tom Marcum |
Take a little stroll with me down memory lane to the days of your childhood and times that you spent playing at your favorite park. If your favorite park was like mine it was filled with all sorts of wonderful playground equipment.
I remember, for instance, what we called, The Jungle Gym. Basically it was a climbing structure made of interlocking metal bars. The idea was to climb to the top of the structure and then jump onto a pole in the center of the contraption and slide all the way down to the ground.
And speaking of sliding, every park always had an assortment of slides that ranged from low level slides for the smallest kids to steeper, higher slides for the bigger kids. We used to throw a handful of sand down the slide before we took off to maximize sliding speed.
Swing sets were a standard feature of most parks. Boys being boys, we weren’t content just to swing, we always had to turn it into a contest to see which of us could swing the highest and then sail the furthest through the air when we leaped from the swing.
And then there was the merry-go-round. It was basically a large metal disc with some bars welded around its perimeter to hold onto. The idea was to put some kids onto the merry-go-round and then get some other kids to see how fast they could get it spinning and how long they could keep it going. As I recall, this particular activity was best avoided right after lunch.
But it was great fun watching your friends get dizzy and tired and eventually launched from the rapidly spinning disc. And it was also great fun to see how long you could stay on before you went flying off the disc and into the sand.
One of the lessons you learned right away on the merry-go-round is that the centrifugal force increased exponentially as you moved to the outer edge of the device. Out there at the edge, when the disc was really spinning fast, it took every ounce of strength you had just to hold on and keep from flying off the thing. But if you could work your way to the very center of the disc, you could actually stand up and be perfectly secure in this little oasis of calm stability, even as your friends at the outer edge were trying to hold on for dear life.
I think there’s a wonderful lesson here for us. And the lesson is basically this—the best way to resist and overcome the various forces that threaten to undo us by pulling us in a hundred different directions is to keep our focus firmly fixed on that center which holds us together. The question is,
--What are you going to put at the center of your life?
--What are you counting on to hold your life together?
--And how firmly is your focus fixed on that center?
Last week we looked at this whole idea of living with focus and what we discovered is that Life Works Best When We Stay Focused on Christ. In other words, we never improve our lives by shifting our focus off of Christ and onto something else. The moment we do that, for any reason, we have gotten off track. Conversely, the moment we shift our focus back onto Christ we are once again moving in the right direction. Life works best when we stay focused on Christ.
This morning, we’re going to continue with this idea of living with focus but we’re going to expand our field of vision just a bit to see that, not only do our individual lives work best when we stay focused on Christ but our corporate life together as a church also works best when we collectively stay focused on Christ. And this is at the heart of what Paul is saying to us as we come on this 5th week of our journey through the book of Colossians to 1:18.
Three Key Words
Colossians 1:18 begins like this, “And he (that is, Christ) is the head of the body, the church…”
Now, there are 3 key words we need to examine here: “head,” “body” and “church.” Let’s begin with the word, “church.”
The “church” that Paul is talking about here, includes, but is not limited to any single congregation in one specific location. Paul is speaking here to what the theologians sometimes call the “church universal” as opposed to the, “church local.” This “church” is comprised of all Christians everywhere who’ve ever lived at any time.
Now, as those Christians gather together in groups large and small to worship God, bring glory to Christ and serve him in ministry in specific locations around the world they will paint various names on the signs that stand outside the buildings where they meet and these names are useful in distinguishing one gathering of believers from another. But every local gathering of believers is identical in one critically important way and that is that Christ is the head the “church.” He’s not head of part of the church. He’s the head of the church. If it really is “church,” then He really is its head.
Now, let’s talk about that word, “head.” What does it mean to say that Christ is the “head” of the church? The context of the passage makes it clear that Paul is continuing to develop the theme of the supremacy of Christ by telling us, now, that Christ not only reigns supreme over creation…as we saw last week…but He also reigns supreme over the church. He is the unchallenged leader and unrivaled guide of the church. In fact, the pronoun, “he,” at the beginning of this verse is emphatic conveying the idea that Christ and Christ alone is head of the church.
But, while Christ stands alone as the head of the church, Christ alone is not the totality of the church. This church of which He is the head also has a body. And there’s our third key word. “He is the head of the body, the church.” And by describing the church, that’s you and me, as a body Paul is providing us an incredibly powerful and practical vision of who we are and how we function best. So, what exactly does this vision of the church as a body tell us? Let me call your attention to 3 things.
First, it tells us that every single member of the church is vitally connected to every other member of the church. We are all members of the same living, dynamic body. Romans 12:4-5 says it like this, “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”
So, in Christ, we are connected to one another in such an organic way that we are vitally important to one another. Every member of the body has a singularly important and distinct contribution to make to the health of the entire body.
To understand this, just think about our own physical bodies for a moment and let me ask you this question—When God designed the human body, where did He make a mistake by including a part that has no function in and no value to the body? Name a totally superfluous part of the human body. OK, you got one? Great. Now, rip it off. Just reach down and yank that dude right off. (And, no, your gut doesn’t count because God didn’t put that there…you did!) The point is, you couldn’t think of one. Every part of the human body is there for a purpose. God doesn’t make mistakes.
And, folks, what’s true of our physical bodies is also true of the body of Christ, the church. God doesn’t make mistakes. There are no unimportant or unnecessary members in the body of Christ. We are connected to one another in such a way that each of us has a contribution to make to the well being of the whole.
Now, is this just an interesting tidbit of theological trivia or do you suppose there are some practical implications for us here? I think the lesson here is exceedingly practical so let me ask another question—How does this understanding of being vitally connected to one another impact the way we actually function day to day as a local expression of the church?
While it impacts us in all sorts of very practical ways, the most obvious and possibly the most significant has to do with the way that we value each other.
--Folks, look around. Every person here is here by God’s design. And God doesn’t make mistakes.
--Look around. God is building His church in this place through these people. And God doesn’t make mistakes.
--Look around. You can search this place from top to bottom and you will not find even one unimportant member.
What an honor, what a privilege, what a blessing it is to be sharing our lives with the very people that God has drawn together at this place, at this time to be His body.
This vision of the church as a body also tells us that we are not only vitally connected to one another but we are also vitally connected to Christ. He is our head. The very idea of a body living and functioning and moving around independent of its head is absurd. The bond that exists between the head and body is so organic that they function as a single unit. And that vision of a living, dynamic unity describes the connection that we the “body” have with Christ our “head.”
Now, again, is this just interesting theological trivia or do you suppose there are some practical implications for us here? Well, let me see if I can jumpstart your thinking with a couple of other questions—
--If Jesus chooses to align Himself as the head of some cause, some mission or some project, do you suppose He’s going to pick something trivial, something minor or something inconsequential? Folks, look at His resume. He headed up creation and now He’s turned His attention to the church. So, what do you think? Do you want to get in on that project or do you have more important things to do with your time?
--And if Jesus chose to align Himself as the head of the church, do you suppose His commitment to the church is going to be half-hearted, lackadaisical and lukewarm? Folks, Jesus doesn’t do anything in a half-hearted way. And He has already demonstrated that there is nothing that He wouldn’t do for the good of His church.
Ephesians 5:25 says that, “…Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…” Jesus is passionately committed to the church. So, what do you think? Do you want to get in on that? Do you want to be involved in the work that is at the very center of the heart and passion of Jesus’ or do you have more important things to do with your time?
What an honor, what a privilege, what a blessing to be the body of Christ, the church.
Finally, this vision of the church as a body tells us one more thing that is just too important to miss, something that is both inspiring and sobering at the same time. And that is that--
--while you and I know that Christ is the head of the body, the church;
--and you and I keep our eyes focused on Christ who leads, guides and directs the body, the church;
--and you and I know that the body, the church would be utterly lost apart from our connection to Christ our head;
--and you and I know that Christ, the head is by far the most beautiful part of this body, the church;
--the truth is, that most of what the non-Christian world believes to be true of Christ is based not on what they’ve seen in Him but rather upon what they see in the actions of the body, the church.
In other words, while the non-Christian world out there may not understand us very well and may have some significantly distorted views about who we are and what we believe and why we do the things we do they have, almost universally, come to one conclusion about us—church is for Christians and Christians model their lives after the example of Christ. And that means that that most of what the non-Christian world believes to be true of Christ is based upon what they are seeing in us.
And, folks, while it breaks my heart to realize that we have not always represented Him well or accurately it is incredibly inspiring to realize that God has drawn me into the very body that He designed to represent Christ to world. I can’t imagine a higher calling. And if God has drawn you into the body of Christ, He’s given you that calling as well.
I can’t imagine a better way to spend my life. Joined to you…and joined to Christ…to be the church…to the glory of God.
And all God’s people said, “Amen.”
© Copyright 2006 Pastor Tom Marcum