(A Solid Grip on the Christian Life) The Body of Christ — Zac Poonen

The Six Foundations of a Solid Christian Life

So, if you've been following along in the last five weeks, we've been talking about having a solid grip on the Christian life, so that it doesn't slip, in other words, that we don't backslide. And we began with considering the hand with the palm, symbolizing our knowing God as our Father, personally, not just theoretically, because the Bible says that, but intimately.

And then we thought about knowing the effectiveness of the blood of Christ in not only cleansing us, but declaring us righteous before God. If we have really repented of our sin, a lot of people claim the blood of Christ to have not repented of their sin, they're fooling themselves that they are cleansed.

They can live all their life thinking they're cleansed and wake up at the judgment seat of Christ and discover they're not cleansed. So repentance is essential before we come to the blood of Christ. Then we thought of the living Word of God, which is different from just reading the printed Word.

But man should live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, and God's words are proceeding from his mouth all the time. And we have to live by that. And that is the message of the first chapter of the Bible, where every day God speaks.

And he's been speaking ever since, from that time onwards. So if we hear and respond and obey, we live, otherwise we don't live. Anything which we call life, which is less than living by every word of God, is not really life.

And then we talked about the fullness of the Holy Spirit, which is distinct from the way people were filled with the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, so the Holy Spirit is upon people. From the day of Pentecost onwards, the Holy Spirit comes within, and from the innermost being, rivers of living water will flow out to bless others.

It's the whole purpose of being filled with the Spirit, is first an inner cleansing, that's why it starts from the innermost being, and then going out to being witnesses to other people in a way that blesses them.

And then last Sunday we thought about the way of the cross. We saw that the one thing that Jesus did every single day of his life, which is written in Scripture, was that he took up the cross, he died to self, that means he died to doing his own will.

That's the one thing we know he definitely did. A lot of other things we don't know, but one thing we know, that every single day he deliberately sought the Father's will, and he did not do his own will.

John 6, 38 says that's the reason why he came down from heaven. And all of these, you find that Christendom speaks about these things, but I would say the vast majority of born-again Christians that I've met, they don't really find security in God as their Father.

One proof of it is they get anxious and worried about so many things. That is the clearest proof that they don't know God as their Father. They know him theoretically, it's like having a father who lives 10 ,000 miles away who once in a while contacts me, but he can't help me when I'm a problem right now.

So that's the way they know him as their Father, and many who speak about the blood of Christ don't know that through that blood I can be completely declared righteous before God. In the same way, many who read the Bible regularly do never hear the word from God's mouth.

In the same way about the Holy Spirit, many who speak about the fullness of the Holy Spirit, it doesn't seem to cleanse their inside, it just produces a lot of excitement. That's not Holy Spirit, that's an unholy spirit that leaves you unclean inside.

I cannot imagine how anybody says they're filled with the holy H-O-L-Y spirit and remain unclean inside. They're filled with something else. I'm just mentioning the amount of deception there is in these areas in Christendom.

And same way, the way of the cross, hardly anybody speaks about the way of the cross and even fewer people sort of seek to go that way. But Jesus said that the way to life would be narrow, and very few would find it.

So I'm not surprised, very few find it. That's really true. So finally, the last of these six is the body of Christ. All these things in one sense were unknown in the old covenant. In the old covenant, nobody knew God as Father, they only knew Him as God.

And you find that even today, in most places, when people pray, they pray, O God, O Lord. There's nothing wrong in that. He is God, He is Lord. But I found that even in the villages in India, they've been taught to pray Lord.

Well, I do pray sometimes Lord, but most of the time I pray Father. In fact, in my private prayer, I say Dad, because that's the real meaning of Abba. It has brought me to an intimate relationship with God.

It's very, very important. And we must see that that's the way it works in our life. And so we find that Christendom has gone astray in all these areas. They don't know God as Father. They don't know the power of the blood of Christ.

Because, for example, they live with condemnation. They live with discouragement, thinking about their past failures. Means they don't know the power of the blood of Christ. And like I said about the living Word of God and the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

And the word of the cross. All these were not known in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, there was no, there was a constant memory, it says, of sins committed in the past. That's gone now with the blood of Christ.

In the Old Testament, they could not hear the living word of God. Only the prophets could hear. Imagine that we have the privilege, which the prophets had, to hear God speak directly to us. In the same way, there was no fullness of the Holy Spirit from within in the Old Covenant.

And the way of the cross was completely unknown in the Old Covenant. So all these five that I mentioned are new covenant experiences, not Old Covenant, in the same way of the body of Christ. In the Old Covenant, there was no such thing as two people becoming one.

The Body of Christ Begins in Unity

Body means the beginning of a human body is when two different individual units become one inside a mother's womb. They are different, but they become one. That's the beginning of a body. It may be very small, but it's the beginning of the body.

If they don't get united, there is no body. It's only when a union takes place between those two dissimilar units inside a mother's womb that they become one. And that's a picture of how the body of Christ begins.

Two people becoming one. That was impossible in the Old Covenant. And that's why God never even attempted to send two prophets together into Israel at any time. Right from the beginning, Noah, he was one man.

I mean, there'd have been confusion. I don't think Ark would ever have been built if there was another man. They'd be always discussing and disagreeing. In the same way, all the prophets in the Old Covenant, Moses, the only reason God gave Aaron was because Moses said, I can't speak.

But Israel was led by one man, Moses. And when Moses went away for 30 days, Aaron led them all into idolatry. It was one man that saved Israel. It was one man that saved the world in Noah's time. It was one man that led Israel out of Egypt.

And it was one man, Joshua, who led them into Canaan. And right through the Old Testament, you find all the prophets, Samuel was a prophet, one single person, Elijah, Elisha, you find them never working with another person.

Or Jeremiah, or all these prophets that you read in the Old Testament. Now, there were prophets in Jeremiah's time, even prophetesses like Huldah. And probably Zephaniah and Habakkuk around that time.

But why is it God did not allow these two prophets to work together? I think I know, because they'd have fought with each other. There'd have been a very bad testimony in Israel if two prophets fought with each other.

So God kept them separate, probably in different parts of the country. And it all changed when Jesus came. Just before Jesus came, we got rid of Haggai and Zechariah. But I don't think they were actually working together.

The one was a much older man, and he prophesied, and then Zechariah continued. Though it was around the same period of time, they were not working together. But the moment Jesus came, we read that he sent out his disciples two by two.

He never sent any of his disciples alone. He chose 70 of them, we read. And we read about that in Luke chapter, this is the beginning, really. In Luke's Gospel in chapter 10, in verse 1, the Lord appointed 70 others, and he sent them two by two.

This is the first time we find the Lord sending more than one person. And he was preparing the way for people working together. And when we look around at Christendom, and see how difficult it is for two people to work together, you can see how even this whole principle of the body is not even manifest today.

But Jesus sent them out as soon as he was there. He sent them in pairs into every place where he himself was going to come. And that's what he's doing today. He's sending people out two by two to every place where he was going to come.

And once you come to the Acts of the Apostles, in Acts chapter 2, they were filled with the Holy Spirit. And what happened was that the Lord took these 120, and through the baptism, the Holy Spirit made them one.

That was the beginning of the body of Christ in Acts chapter 2. And then you read in chapter 3, Peter and John, you see them going together. Now the interesting thing, which if you read the Gospels, is that Peter and John were completely different in their temperament.

John was the more introverted, meditative type of person, and Peter was the fiery, choleric man. And God put these two opposites together. God has a wonderful way of bringing people who are dissimilar, but who love Jesus, and making them work together.

Because the glory of God, we read in John 1, 14, was seen in Jesus Christ, full of grace and truth. Now it's very, very difficult, I found through the years, for one single person to manifest grace and truth in balance.

Usually, we are all imbalanced slightly this way or that way. I mean, if you're over a period of maturity, over 30, 40, 50 years, that balance may come. But initially, when we go out to serve, there's an imbalance.

The Bible says in Romans 11, 22, Behold the goodness and the severity of God. God is good and God is severe. And it's very difficult to find a servant of the Lord who's got that imbalance. Jesus had it in perfect balance.

He could put his hand around the lepers, and he could comfort adulterous women and forgive them. But he would also take a whip and chase people out of the temple. That's the balance between grace and truth.

But it's rarely found in people at the beginning of their Christian life. Usually, we're imbalanced. Even in a marriage, a balanced marriage would be one where the father and mother together manifest grace and truth.

But one is strict and one is kind. It's not that the other is not kind. But that balance is usually found in two dissimilar people coming together. So if you find that your marriage partner is the opposite of yours, it's a pretty good indication that that may be the will of God.

Because he brings people together who are dissimilar. And it's a foolish husband or wife who tries to change the partner to become like them. There's some foolish, I would say idiotic, wives who try to change their husbands to be like them.

Or husbands who try to change their wives to be like them. It's not what God intended. Peter never tried to make John like him. John didn't try to make Peter like him. It's fantastic conceit, arrogance to think that everybody in the body of Christ must be like me.

What rubbish. Or that everybody should have my gift. That's arrogance. God has made people different. And that the Bible says that in 1 Corinthians 12, one is the hand and one is the foot and one is the ear, one is the eye.

And what will the body be like if it's one big eye? So we must recognize, you can know that you've understood a little bit of the body of Christ. If you can accept, accept others who are different from you, but who love Jesus as much as you or perhaps more than you, they may be different.

Jews and Gentiles Made One in Christ

So this is the balance that the Lord seeks to bring in right from the beginning when he's initiating, when he's planting a church. And I see the picture of that when Jesus is stretching out his arms on the cross.

I believe he was inviting the fanatic Jews who thought everybody else in the world was bad, only they were good. And the opposite of the Jews were the Gentiles, every non-Jew, who were proud of their own culture.

And Jesus brought them both together. If you turn to Ephesians, it says here, when I say this, like this, you say, yeah, I know that. But it's one thing to know it in our head. It's quite another thing to know it in our experience.

In Ephesians 3, it says here that by God's revelation, Ephesians 3, verse 2, there was a stewardship, a ministry of God's grace, which is given to me for you. That by revelation, Ephesians 3, 3, it was made known to be the mystery.

Now, the word mystery, as I've said before, is a new covenant word, which to understand it, you need revelation. You can't understand it by study. Now, we can study about the body of Christ and you won't understand it.

The proof that you've understood it is if you can work together in a body. If you can't work together with other people who are different, you have not understood the body at all, however much you understand the theory of it.

If you can't accept people who are different from you in the body of Christ, you haven't understood this mystery. The mystery is, and it says in verse 5, this was not made known in previous generations to anybody.

It's a new covenant mystery. And the mystery is, then verse 6, that the Gentiles should become fellow heirs with the Jews in the body of Christ. Now, why does it speak so much about Jews and Gentiles?

These are the two greatest opposites that the world has ever seen in terms of race and culture. We have in India, high caste and low caste, and there's a tremendous difference between them. But that's not as great as Jew and Gentile.

In the history of the human race, Jew and Gentile were the two greatest opposites that ever existed from the time of Adam. And when Jesus stretched out his hand on the cross, he was saying, I'm bringing together Jews and Gentiles to become one.

So, where a church is not willing and open to receive people of different nationalities, different races, different cultures, different intellectual levels, it has not understood anything about the body of Christ.

And I don't think the Lord is there. I heard of a story of a man who was converted and who went to a particular church where they would welcome only people of one particular race. And this man did not happen to be in that race.

And his race was different. The color of his skin was different. And when he went to the door, the usher said, please find another church who don't think you'll be welcome here. He was absolutely astounded.

He had been converted just the previous week. And he walked down the road and said, Lord, why is that? I wanted to go to that church and they wouldn't let me in. The Lord said, don't worry. I've been trying to get into that church myself for such a long time.

They won't let me in. So, I'm not surprised that they don't let you. So, when we don't let somebody in because he's different, he can be pretty sure the Lord himself is outside. So, turn with me now to Colossians chapter.

Now, you say that doesn't sound like a mystery, that the Jews and Gentiles should be one. But you see how, see where it is being practiced and experienced. And you'll find, I mean, even in your own heart, in your own hearts, you may sit in a church where you look around and say, people are different nationalities here.

That's not the issue. Do you accept them? Do you accept them as one with you? Do you fellowship with them? Or do you naturally fellowship with people who are like you? Who are as educated as you are? Who are the same language as you?

And say, in the same culture as you? If you're doing that, even if you sit in this church, I would say you have not seen the mystery. You have not seen it. And I've seen many people who sit in CFC churches, who have not seen this mystery.

Because they fellowship only with people of their own kind. Even though they sit in a church with people of different nationalities. Or they fellowship only with people of their same intellectual level.

But turn with me to Colossians in chapter 3. We read here that Paul was the one who got revelation on this. And he's the one who wrote about it in Ephesians and Colossians. And do you know where Paul got this revelation?

On the road to Damascus. When he fell off the horse and he heard the voice from saying, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord? I'm persecuting you. I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting.

That's where he realized that these Christians were part of the body of Jesus. Christians of different races. They were the body of Jesus. In other words, the head was there, the body was here. He began to get that revelation there.

And later on, he began to understand that it was not just the Jews. At that time, it was mostly only the Jews. There were a few Gentiles. But here he says in Colossians 3,. Now you have put on a new man, verse 10.

Colossians 3, 10. Which is being renewed in the image of the one who created him. And in this renewal, I mean, how do we know we're being renewed into the image of Christ? Here is it is. In this renewal, there is no distinction between Greek and Jew.

That means the two greatest opposites. There's no question of caste or culture. Makes absolutely no difference. I'm united to a person on the basis of Christ. That's all. Which is not true in the old covenant.

And circumcised or uncircumcised. I'm not even united to somebody on the basis of doctrinal unity. You know, I have met people who are baptized as babies. Who are a hundred times more spiritual than some people are baptized as adults.

It's true. I've seen them. And I have more fellowship with that believer who's baptized as a baby than this guy was baptized as a believer. Because there's a far more humility in that man. Far more Christ-likeness.

I'm not saying baptism as a baby is right. It's a hundred percent wrong. But he's wrong in that doctrine. But I have fellowship with him. So it's not on the basis of doctrinal unity that the body of Christ is built.

Because we find in the body of Christ, there are people who have different views, even on the fullness of the spirit and all that. That's not the basis. Though these are truths in scripture, we don't wait till a person understands these truths fully before I can fellowship with him.

So it says, in those days it was circumcision. Paul says it doesn't matter. Circumcised or uncircumcised makes no difference. In the body of Christ, that doctrine or any other doctrine. For example, I believe with all my heart, like many of us do in our churches, that the church will go through the great tribulation and then Christ will come.

Now there are God-fearing believers who don't believe that. Who believe that the church will be taken up before the tribulation. Fine. I can fellowship with such a person. Because my fellowship is not based on unity in these doctrines which are not central.

There are doctrines which are central. I mean, if he doesn't believe that Jesus Christ is God, then of course, it's completely out of the question to fellowship with him. If he doesn't believe in the Trinity, I won't be able to fellowship with him because he's denying the Father and the Son, which 1 John 2 says is the Antichrist.

Now there are Christians who deny the Trinity. Now I don't believe I can have much fellowship with them. I can love them, but they're denying the Trinity is a serious issue. And then the other thing is barbarian and Scythian, which is culture.

Barbarian is someone who's not refined and polished and cultured like most of us are. He's grown up in the jungles and he probably dresses in a crude way and he's got bad mannerisms and his mannerisms can hurt you.

And if I can't accept such a man in the church and fellowship with him just because his culture is different or he's crude in the way he conducts himself, and I can only fellowship with people who are refined and polished like me, then I have not understood anything about the body of Christ.

You ask yourself, you examine the list of people who you are close to. I'm talking to you here. Examine the list of people whom you have close fellowship with you and you may discover that unconsciously you're fellowshipping only with people who are exactly like you.

And then I'm sorry to say to you, but it's the truth. You have not seen the ABC of the body of Christ, whatever else you may say. I've seen in India, for example, Malayali people, they always fellowship with Malayalis.

It's a language. It's a language of particular community. They have certain mannerisms and they like people with those mannerisms. They prefer such people more than people in the body of Christ who are different.

Actually, they haven't seen the body of Christ. I mean, you can't force them to see it. They got to see the mystery which comes by revelation. And there are people sitting like that in CFC churches or maybe another language.

They like people of that language because they can communicate that way. So that's another thing. Barbarians who are different, who are cultured Greeks, and there's uncultured barbarian. Fellowshiping together.

And the Scythian, the Scythian, by the way, is the man whom even the barbarian considers uncultured. This is completely extreme. And imagine all these people sitting together in one church. Amazing. Or slave and free man.

That's the another thing where one person is a slave. In those days, slaves had no rights. They were the lowest level of society. Imagine if we had people sitting here who were from the lowest level of society.

And free men, rich people from the other extreme and fellowshipping together. I'm not talking about communism where we share our money with everybody. That's what communism teaches. Take from the rich and give to the poor.

Jesus never taught that. You find that there was a man in those days called Philemon who had a church meeting in his house. And he had a slave, not a servant, a slave called Onesimus. You read the book of Philemon there in the Bible.

And Onesimus just ran away from home, from that house one day. And Paul found him and brought him to Christ. And he sent him back to the master Philemon. And he did not tell Philemon to liberate him or share your wealth with him.

Now he's a brother in Christ, share your wealth with him. That's communism. Paul did not preach communism. He said, welcome him and be good and kind to him and forgive him. And if he owes you any money, Paul says, I'll pay it.

So can you imagine this? They're meeting in the same house. Philemon's house, the church is meeting. And when the church is meeting, Onesimus calls Philemon, brother Philemon. But the moment the church meeting is over, he has to say, sir, master, the thing has changed.

In the same house. It must have been wonderful. Imagine living in a house like that. That is how the body of Christ functions. That there's no change in social levels. But it says in verse 11, Christ is all and in all.

I'll tell you, this is a much bigger subject than what I have just spoken here. But if you are sincere about wanting to know the body of Christ and experience, you can ask yourself and examine yourself and see whether you gravitate to people who are exactly like you.

Then you have not understood the ABC of the body of Christ. Whatever you may say, you may sit in NCCF or any other church like that. If you've seen the body of Christ, it makes, I'm not talking about talking to people.

Oh, we're all glad to talk to everybody. I'm talking about fellowship with people, becoming one with people. Who are the people you're most close to? I'll tell you in India, when we started the work in our church, the two of us who started, I'm basic from Kerala, Malayali.

The other brother, Ian Robson, was an Anglo-Indian. Now, if you go throughout India, you can see the two greatest opposites are Malayalis and Anglo-Indians. Malayalis are arrogant Pharisees and Anglo-Indians are, they feel that we've got part of English blood in us.

And they can never, I've never seen Malayalis and Anglo-Indians getting together in the whole of India. You don't know that, but it is true. And God brought us together and forged us into a unity that's lasted for 44 years in an amazing way.

And we have so many different people in our church and we don't work together only with our own culture. No, we work with people of different cultures and I can say before God, every one of them is exactly the same to me.

I've, I've worked with people who are uneducated to the point where they cannot read or write. And we had, at one time we had an elder brother of one of our house churches who could not read or write.

He was an elder, a leading brother in a CFC church. And we have PhDs in CFC church as well. And we don't make a distinction. And if you come to the church, you will not be able to make out who's the PhD and who's the uncultured one.

This is how we built the body. The body must not something we talk about theoretically. It must be demonstrated. And there's a responsibility on each one of us in the church to do that, to have that attitude in our life, which has to change.

In other words, the attitude we are born with has to change fundamentally. Because most of us unconverted parents have instilled certain wrong values into our heads where this, our own particular community, our own particular culture, thus we must fellowship with them.

So it's very, very important in this area to break down these barriers. Turn with me now to Ephesians chapter 2 as to how this body was built. It says here in Ephesians 2, there was a time, verse 11, when he says, you Gentiles, verse 12, were separate from Christ and excluded from the commonwealth of Israel.

But now, verse 13, Ephesians 2, 13, in Christ, you who are far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. See, the blood of Christ does some amazing things. It not only cleanses us, we are very proud of that, but it brings us near.

And when you come near Christ, you come near other people who have been cleansed by the blood of Christ. I think of the illustration of a bicycle wheel. A bicycle wheel has got many spokes. They all come towards the center.

Initially, they are far away from each other. But as they approach the center, these spokes get closer to each other. And I believe that's one way I discover that, as I come, if I'm, one way I find out whether I'm coming closer to Christ or not, the center, is that I'm coming closer to some other brother who's coming from the other end of the spectrum, who's also coming towards Christ.

We're two extremes. But as we come towards the center, like the spokes of the bicycle wheel, we come closer to each other. Now, if I'm not coming closer to those brothers, I'm deceiving myself that I'm coming closer to Christ.

I'm not coming closer to Christ. Intellectually, I'm understanding so many things, but it's not real in life. And so, you know, you can see how prejudice is such a strong thing that when God wanted Peter to go and preach to the Gentile Cornelius, he had to give him a vision three times and speak to him from heaven.

And still, it was such a problem for Peter to go. But Peter broke that barrier and went. But here it says that those who are far off, verse 13, have been brought nigh by the blood of Christ and He has made, verse 14, both groups into one, breaking down the barrier of the dividing wall.

There's a barrier of a dividing wall between different races, nationalities, cultures in this world, between intellectuals and non-intellectuals. And all that is broken down in Christ. When we think about the cross, that's what the cross does.

The cross breaks down all those barriers. So, you cannot come into the body if you don't come by the way of the cross. That's why we spoke about the cross last time. Because one of the things the cross does is break down all these prejudices that I have and this attachment that I have to people of my own community, my own social level, my own intellectual level.

It's all broken down. Now, one way to find out in your own case whether it is true or not, you ask yourself, who are your closest friends? People of your own community? Then probably you're deceiving yourself that that barrier has been broken down.

Is it people of your own intellectual level? Then probably you're deceiving yourself that that barrier has been broken down. It's not been broken down. You've seen many other things in the church but you have not seen the body of Christ.

The fundamental thing Jesus worked towards, you have not seen. So, it says here, barrier is not being broken down. There's a barrier of a dividing wall. We peek over that barrier sometimes and say hi to different people but then go away and the barrier is still there.

There's a lot of difference between the fellowship which is peeking over the wall and say hi, good to see you and talk to you and then go our own way. When the barrier is broken down, there's intermingling freely.

And the other picture used here is the enmity in the flesh. Verse 15, Jesus abolished this enmity in the flesh which makes two people different. Do you know there's an enmity in our flesh to anyone who's different from me?

You see, doctors know that if they take somebody else's skin and transplant it on your own body where your skin was scraped off, you need to give the guy so many medicines so that it will accept this foreign skin that has come into this.

Even in our human body, there's an aversion to having somebody else's skin on me. And that's a picture of how it is in our relationship. There's enmity within. And I tell you, this verse, the enmity in the flesh is the main reason why husbands and wives fight with each other.

Even though they say they love one another and they say so many wonderful things to each other and call each other by all fantastic names, the enmity in the flesh makes them clash, makes them lose their temper, makes them demand that you must do things my way.

These are all because of the enmity in the flesh. And both of them are not taking up the cross to put that enmity to death. And so they married for years, but it's still there, clashing with each other.

I don't believe it should be like that. I mean, people who don't take up the cross will naturally clash all their life. But it's a wonderful thing that we can have where if I recognize there's an enmity in my flesh towards anyone who's different from me.

Say to yourself, there is an enmity in my flesh to anyone who thinks differently from me. Not only whose culture is different, but who thinks differently. And you must say, my wife thinks differently for me, and my husband thinks differently for me.

I've got an enmity in my flesh to that. I've got to kill that if I want to become one with my wife, with my husband or wife. Otherwise, you'll never be one. You can give a superficial appearance of unity, but it's a deception.

Everybody likes to look before others that, yeah, we are loving husband and wife, we are united. But if you don't kill the enmity in your flesh, I want to say to all of you married folks, you will never be one.

You have to recognize that enmity in the flesh and say that was crucified on the cross. And say, Lord, I want to be crucified with you. And then that I don't want to have that inward rejection of anyone, whatever their nationality, language, culture, social level, education level.

I want to mingle with people who are completely different from me. And sometimes we have to do it deliberately. You know, I, in the early days when I began to understand this, I deliberately sought fellowship with people who are completely different from me.

I would even use, try to speak to them in their broken language. It didn't matter if they laughed at my attempt to speak their language. I was trying to build fellowship. And that's how I learned some languages in India that I did not know, as I sought to build fellowship.

And that's how we built the body of Christ. But there's no distinction. I praise the Lord for that. And the whole purpose is, it says in verse 15, that out of the two, we can make one new man. The two have to become one new man.