Christ Wants a Body, Not a Congregation — Zac Poonen

God’s Promise to Do Something New

I want to start with a… my subject today is Christ wants a body, not a congregation. And I want to begin with a promise, which we want to claim, Isaiah 43 and verse 19. I thought of this especially in relation to abundant life.

We've gone through some difficult times, but here's what the Lord says, Isaiah 43 and verse 19, Behold, I will do something new. Now it will spring forth. Will you not be aware of it? I will make a roadway in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

A promise from God is like a check. When you say amen to that, will you say amen to that? God will do something new. He will make a roadway in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. When you say amen, you're endorsing it with your name at the back and putting it in the bank of heaven.

And there's never been a check endorsed with amen that's gone to the bank of heaven that was not cashed. Every single one of them. I've proved that for 55 years, it's really true. So we want to think about this, that God wants to do something new, but he does it through men and women.

God Uses Redeemed Men and Women

God could do a lot of things on his own. There are millions of angels who would rush to serve him, but he's decided to use men and women. There's an instance of that in the Acts of the Apostles where there was a man called Cornelius who needed to hear the gospel.

And an angel came to Cornelius and he could have given him the gospel. Didn't the angel know that Christ died for the sins of the world? Christ rose up, repent, believe, but God did not allow that angel to give the gospel to Cornelius.

And you need to understand the reason why. Even though he knew the gospel and he could preach it much better than any human being, God did not allow him. He said, send for Peter. And Peter's coming would take three, four days because he was living in some other city.

Cornelius had to send for him and he had to walk and come here. But it doesn't matter if it takes three or four days, but that angel will not be allowed to preach the gospel for one reason, because that angel could not say, Jesus died for me.

You and I can say that. That's why that angel was not allowed to preach the gospel to Cornelius. It's only one who has been redeemed by the blood of Christ who can say, this is what Jesus did for me, who's permitted to preach the gospel.

So God uses men and women. So when we think of our situation here, there's no situation that's too difficult for God to handle. One of the great messages I get from the gospels and the miracles that Jesus did is that there's no problem that God cannot solve.

Every situation, God has got an answer. And that applies to your personal life, to your home life, and to any church. That's the message in all the miracles in the gospels. You never find anyone coming to Jesus with a problem, and Jesus sort of scratching his head and saying, that's a tough one.

Never. Never. And I want to say to you, I don't know what your problem is. Jesus is not going to scratch his head today and say, that's a tough one. He can solve it. There's no problem God cannot solve.

So that's what we learn in many situations in the scripture. I want to turn with you to an Old Testament example in the book of Haggai. Haggai chapter 1. This is a time when God's people were in a very discouraged state because they'd gone captive to Babylon.

They were punished by God. And then 70 years later, God brought them back to Jerusalem. Now Haggai chapter 1 in verse 2, they hadn't started building the temple, that the main thing was the temple which Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed.

And these people kept saying, oh, the time has not come, the time has not come for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt. And you know how the Lord rebuked them? In verse 4, he said in Haggai 1 verse 4, is it time for you to dwell in your paneled houses while my house lies desolate?

Verse 5, consider your ways. If our house was destroyed in a tornado or storm, we'd start working on it the very next day. We'd spend time, money, energy to do it. And the Lord says, what about my house?

Are you concerned about my house? As much as you are about your own house, after all that I've done for you, consider your ways. And so the Lord told them in that day to go up to the mountain and bring wood and build his temple, bring stones, etc.

And that's what the Lord says to us. I want you to come to me in prayer and pray that God will, that I will do something for your church. And if all of us will do that, God is going to do something wonderful.

The Church as God’s Dwelling and Christ’s Body

I want to say that. And I want to now share with you the subject, Christ wants a body and not a congregation. There are two pictures primarily in the New Testament of what a church is supposed to be. First of all, in the Old Testament, the temple was in Jerusalem.

It was a physical building. And if you wanted to worship God, you had to go to Jerusalem. If you wanted to offer a sacrifice, you had to go to Jerusalem. But all that's changed in the New Testament. In the New Testament, you know, God says, I don't dwell in temples made with hands.

I dwell in the midst of my people. And the early Christians never had a church building. They would meet in caves, forests, all types of places because they were persecuted. Or in houses and little groups.

They were not meeting in a building primarily. The church was people. And those people, church was Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, church. That doesn't mean they had meetings all the time.

But they recognized, I'm part of the church. And whatever two, three believers met together, that was church fellowship. You could be just sitting, talking together in a home, two, three believers. And you talk about the Lord, it's fellowship in the church.

And that's how the church got built. It's built with connections between different believers. And we need to come back to that. That type of relationship. The church is called a body. And it's called a building.

So let's just look at those two pictures. In Ephesians 2, verse 21, first of all. Ephesians 2, verse 21. The church is called a building fitted together that's growing into a holy temple in the Lord. And the individual bricks are you and me.

You and I are the individual bricks in that. Now here in the United States, you build buildings with wood. In India, we can't build with wood because a lot of problems with termites, etc. So all houses are built with bricks.

And that's a beautiful picture of the church, how the church is built. Each person is an individual brick being cemented with another. That's how the house comes up. So when a house is built in India, the first thing that happens is a truck comes with about 20 ,000 bricks or 10 ,000 depending on the size of the house and lays it by the side of the road.

And then they start building. Now if you leave that pile of bricks like that in India, they start getting reduced in number every day. Because somewhere down the road, someone else is building his house as well.

And this is a picture of a congregation. 10 ,000 people, what you call mega churches. Not joined together, sitting together just like in a movie theater with no connection with one another. A pile of bricks.

One day one brick disappears, another one disappears. Satan just picks them up one by one. And finally very few are left. That's because they're not built together. And then pastors preach about somebody stealing my sheep.

That's because they're just lying like a pile of bricks. I mean if you build a building with bricks, a building like this, how could anybody ever steal a brick from here? It's impossible. Once it's built, you belong.

That's the first picture of the church. Brothers and sisters, we must not come together in abundant life like a movie theater to watch a performance. A praise performance or a preaching performance. That only caters to, you know, preachers who make themselves like film stars and super personalities centered around one man.

That is not the church of Jesus Christ. And the church of Jesus Christ is centered around Jesus. He's the head. He's the only head that the church of Jesus Christ has. And any man who tries to project himself in such a way that people are connected to him rather than to Christ, I want to say that's not the church of Jesus Christ.

And unfortunately, we have a lot of these type of churches being built today, everywhere in the world, even in India. It's centered around one gifted man. He's very gifted. Maybe he can heal or he can preach or he's very eloquent.

And all the others are just like mushrooms, little mushrooms growing up under this big oak tree. That is not the church in the New Testament. The church in the New Testament is where every single person is connected with Jesus Christ, the head, personally, and can respond.

See this little finger. This little finger can respond to the commands of the head all by itself. It's got a connection. That's the second picture you have in the New Testament about the church being not only a building but a body.

God uses pictures to show us what he wants. And we need to be gripped by this. So I hope you'll take what I'm sharing this morning, this is a burden of my heart, seriously. If you take it seriously, that promise we saw at the beginning will be fulfilled.

God will do a new thing. He will make a way in the desert. He will bring rivers in the desert, in the wilderness. So the second picture is in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 16. I want you to turn to Ephesians 4 and verse 16 where we read of the whole body being fitted and held together.

This is Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 16. The whole body fitted and held together. It's like the building where there were bricks. Here it is speaking about individual parts of the body being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies.

And here's the part where you come in. And you and I. According to the proper working of each individual part causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. Now if there's nothing else you can do, you can love.

That anybody can do. Even a little child. But there's a proper working of each individual part. And that's the thing my brothers and sisters, you need to ask yourself whether you're doing your part. Every part of this body has got a function.

It speaks about joints. Joints are very important. Each part of this body has got a function. There's no part in this human body which does not have a function. Some have a more important part. Maybe a more prominent part.

The eyes and the ears and the tongue, they are more prominent. But there are small parts inside the body like nerves and arteries and veins through which the blood flow and many other things. I don't even know everything inside.

But they are all very, very important. And there's no part of this body which is unimportant. Some are visible. You know we see hands and we're amazed when someone can play an organ or a piano. The eyes and the ears, the tongue are important.

But what about the invisible parts? Are they not important? The visible parts are those who have a lot of prominence coming up in the platform. The invisible parts are those who sit there. Are they important?

Is your heart important? What about the kidneys and the liver? You never see them. None of us have ever seen these parts in our body. There are parts of the body that never have a public function. But they are very important.

For example, I often think of people who pray fervently. I don't mean just pray a ritual prayer but to have a burden in their heart and pray. They're like the heart that pumps the blood that makes the tongue to speak.

How could the tongue speak if the heart doesn't pump the blood? I'm very conscious of that myself. The Apostle Paul once told Christians, Pray for me, he says. To a number of those Christians when he wrote letters he said, Pray for me that God will enable me to open my mouth and speak boldly.

Now when I read that I think, Boy, you mean the Apostle Paul needs somebody to pray for him? I thought he's the type of guy who'll stand up and speak boldly anywhere. But to speak under the anointing of the Holy Spirit needs the functioning of a body.

That's why wherever I go, wherever I speak, I always ask people in all the 50 or more churches that I have oversight for, to pray for me. And it makes a lot of difference. And it's because people pray, I'm able to speak.

Because the heart pumps the blood, the tongue can speak. So don't ever think that you can do nothing for the body. If you can't do anything else, you can pray and you can love. Any one of us can do that.

So remember that there is a function for every part of the body. When the Lord spoke through the prophet Haggai to build the temple, he wanted the people to have a burden for it. The tragedy was they were there and they didn't seem to have a burden.

They were building their own houses in Jerusalem because they had come back from Babylon. And they didn't care about the temple of the Lord. Don't you folks have a burden for my house, God says? And that's the question that the Lord asks us today.

I want to ask all of you sitting here. If you have given your life to Christ, and you're born again, you're a child of God. Do you have a burden for his house? Do you treat his house as your house? I remember many years ago, in our own building, back in Bangalore, where we meet as a church.

There was a day when there were different maintenance jobs to be done and we allotted it one weekday to different brothers. And the brother who was supposed to clean the toilets, the restrooms, hadn't turned up.

I don't know, maybe he was held up, but he didn't tell anyone to take his place. And initially, when I was there, and I was a bit disturbed, and the Lord said to me, why don't you go and do it? Why do you wait for him to come?

Is this your house? Supposing somebody volunteered to come and clean the toilets in your own home everyday, and he didn't turn up one day, what would you do? Call him up and say, hey, don't you come to clean the toilet, the restrooms in my home everyday, why didn't you turn up today?

I wouldn't say that. That's my responsibility. That day the Lord said to me, treat my house as your house. And I changed my whole view towards the church. It was not a place where it was somebody else's house.

I want to ask you whether you treat God's house as somebody else's house. Is he really your father? Jesus called it my father's house. Would you be just as happy to clean the restrooms here as in your own house?

Always say that's somebody else's job. Is it your father's house really? Do we come here to get benefits, to be blessed, but never think of offering our service to do something? Would you do it if somebody paid you $2000 a month?

You'd do it for money? Wish you wouldn't do out of love for Jesus Christ? That's the tragedy in Christendom today. We have merchants, money changers, who come to the house of God to make profit. That's why Jesus drove them out.

There's nothing wrong with selling sheep and doves for people who want to offer sacrifices to God. But there's everything wrong when people try to use that as a means to make money. That's why Jesus never offered a salary to his disciples.

He told them to trust him. God's work, it's not like the Old Testament Levites, who were paid by the others. In the New Covenant, it's not like that. We serve because we love. Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments.

And I believe the great need, my brothers and sisters, is for all of us to express our gratitude to God for what he's done for us, for dying for us on the cross, for saving us from our sins, for giving us a hope for the future, to express our gratitude and say, Lord, what can I do for you?

You know, when the apostle Paul was converted on the road to Damascus, you know the question he asked the Lord? Lord, what will you have me to do? It's a wonderful question. If every one of you who are converted, Paul asked that question the moment he was converted.

As soon as he was converted, his first question was, Lord, what do you want me to do for you? That is the question of anyone who has seen how much the Lord has done for him. What can I do for you to build your body, to build your temple?

God Uses the Weak and Overlooks Human Status

Then I want to say one more thing because we can think, well, I'm not so gifted, I'm not so capable, I'm not so educated. What are the type of members that the Lord has in his body? Turn with me to 1 Corinthians and chapter 1 and verse 26.

In 1 Corinthians 1, 26 to 29, we read, this is the early church in Corinth. There were a few mighty, noble, educated people, but he says, consider your calling, brethren. There are not many wise, according to the flesh.

That means there are not many clever, intelligent people as the world considers in your church. Not many mighty, not many noble. Verse 27, God has chosen the foolish things of the world. Do you feel that you're one of the foolish people, not so clever and smart?

Maybe you're a blue-collar worker. You know, that's the type of person God's chosen to shame the wise, to shame all the white-collar people. He's chosen the poor to shame the rich. He's chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things that are strong.

Verse 28, and the base things of the world, those who are considered low down. In India, we have, unfortunately, the Hindu religion has got a caste system. But God has chosen sometimes Christians from the lowest caste to be his people, to be children of God.

We've seen that. And they're wonderful. They're anointed with the Holy Spirit and have such a mighty ministry. We've seen that in our churches. The despised God has chosen. Are you one of those who is despised and based in the world?

That's the type of person God chose to be part of his church. And the reason is so that he might nullify or bring to nothing the people who think they are somebody. Verse 29, the whole purpose is so that no man may boast before God.

And I like to see a church which has got that type of people. That's exactly what abundant life is. Praise the Lord. And God can do something wonderful so that no man can glory. It's through the power of the Holy Spirit that his church is built.

I want to show you another verse in Acts of the Apostles 4 and verse 13. You know, Peter and John were preaching there and all the high priests, scholars saw the boldness, the confidence, verse 13 of Peter and John.

And they understood they were uneducated and untrained men filled with the Holy Spirit. They were amazed. How could these uneducated, untrained men speak so powerfully? And in the Living Bible it says they were uneducated non-professionals.

So if you are an uneducated non-professional who never went past 8th grade in school, you qualify to be along with Peter and John to be even an apostle. Those are the type of people whom God chose. Christianity has drifted from that.

Thinking you need great scholars and mighty CEOs of companies to be board members. It's not true. The first disciples of Jesus were fishermen. Uneducated non-professionals were anointed with the Holy Spirit.

That is how he built his church those days and we need to come back to that. We need to come back to seeking for the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the reason I'll tell you myself when God called me to quit my job 50 years ago, I was in the Navy.

I decided I would never go to a Bible school. I said I'm going to demonstrate in my life that we can serve God without ever going to a Bible school or Bible college or seminary with the anointing of the Holy Spirit alone and reading the Bible.

And that's what I've done in 50 years. And because I say we have to go back to that first century the way they did it in those days. I want to encourage you my brothers and sisters one reason I said that was more than 99 of God's people who sit in the church never get a chance to go to Bible school and if we give them the impression you got to go to some Bible college before you can serve the Lord.

That's a lot of rubbish. You can serve the Lord just what you need is the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Sure. Without that you can do nothing. But I want you to have that faith that every one of you and when I say every one of you every one of you who's born again and a part of this church I want to encourage you to believe that God can use you to do something to build the body of Christ here.

It's not just educated people. God is the God of the week. In Deuteronomy chapter 10 let me show you how he said that in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 10, 17 He said this The Lord your God is the God of gods.

The Lord of lords, the great, the mighty the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. Verse 18. He exercises justice for whom? For the orphan. For the widow. He shows his love for the stranger by giving him food and clothing.

You see, widows and orphans and strangers who come into a new land are the people on the fringes of society. They're not the big people in the center of society. They're on the fringes. And God is saying I'm the God of the people who are the outcasts and on the fringes of society.

And he's the same today. I want you to know that. I want you to be encouraged. Jesus was despised and rejected by people. And he's the first body of Christ. Let me show you another verse in James in chapter 2.

See, it's very important for us to be gripped by this because so many wrong concepts about Christianity in today's Christendom that need to be erased as we come to the scriptures. James chapter 2, verse 5.

Listen, my beloved brethren. Whom did God choose? God has chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom. Who are the heirs of his kingdom? The poor of this world which he has promised to those who love him.

And if you don't happen to be poor well, seek to be poor in spirit which means to have a sense of your own need. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You know, in the very first miracle that Jesus did in the marriage in Cana do you know whom he used?

He did not use all those big shots who were there in the wedding all the important people. They sat there. They couldn't do anything. He was in the kitchen. He was using the servants. You read that in John chapter 2.

He called the servants. He said, I'm gonna use you, servants to do the first of my miracles. And those servants poured the water and the servants drew out the wine. There's a message in all of this that we must not miss.

And God is always on the side of the underdog. The one who's despised. The one who's rejected. He's not on the side of these mega churches. Don't you believe that? He's looking for the weak and the helpless and says, I'm the God of the widows and the orphans and those on the fringes of society.

I've chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith. Those are the ones I'm gonna use. So that I can put to shame the wise and the great and the mighty so that no one will boast in my presence. Turn with me to Luke chapter 4 when Jesus said he was preaching the gospel.

To whom was he gonna preach it? Luke 4 verse 18. The spirit of the Lord is upon me, Jesus said in his first sermon in Nazareth. He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. Have you read that?

Why does God place such an emphasis on that? Because he knows those are the ones who nobody cares for. I've seen, I remember when I was a young Christian and I saw the different churches and they were always giving importance to those who were very big in the world who were very rich.

And all the pastors would want to gather the rich people. And I said, Lord if you ever give me an opportunity ever in my life. I was just 20 years old then. And I said, Lord if you ever give me a chance to build a church for you.

I will seek for those who are godly. Irrespective of whether they are rich or poor. I'll be blind to whether they are rich or poor. Are they God fearing? Are they humble? That's what I'll look for. And that's what we have done.

In all the churches that God's helped us to plan in the last 40 years. We've given honor to those who fear God. Now I was saying about the proper functioning of each part. You know what happens when this hand does not function properly.

Think of a person playing the piano but both all the fingers working together. It's not because they fellowship together but because they got a connection with the head. That's what makes all the fingers.

Every little finger is obeying the head. That's why the piano plays so beautifully. It's not by our spending time together that we can work together. Sometimes we think that's how it is. That's good. But it must come through a connection with the head.

We can work together when each finger is connected to the head. When your personal relationship with Jesus Christ seven days of the week is right then our fellowship will be glorious. Then our praise as it sounds in heaven will sound beautiful in God's ears.

See I don't know whether you realize that God's not primarily interested in how good our music is or how well the instruments play. That's good. But more important is the condition of our hearts. I've said this before and I don't mind repeating it.

There was a time in our church once when some of the instruments were not playing together properly and that disturbed me. And the Lord said I'm not disturbed by that. I'm disturbed because the husband and wife here are not playing in symphony.

The two brothers here were not in fellowship. Two sisters are not in fellowship. That disturbs me. There's a lack of symphony here. That disturbs me more than whether the instruments are playing together.

And I prayed a prayer that day. I said Lord from now on if something doesn't disturb you don't let it disturb me anymore. But the things that do disturb you I want that to disturb me. We read that verse in Ephesians about where the joints need to function together.

The joints are for example here think of this hand. If it gets paralyzed its connection with the head is gone. And then it can't play when the head says come on play something along with the left hand it can't because it's paralyzed.

Its connection with the head is gone. And it's that type of person who does nothing for the church. If you got a connection with the head you will do something. Every part of the body is important. And then it speaks about the joints.

Think of this hand how many joints there are. There is a joint here in the shoulder. There is a joint at the elbow. There is a joint at the wrist. And there are a number of joints. Each finger has got three joints.

And think if these joints didn't function. Think if your joints were stiff. Think if this elbow was stiff and couldn't bend. What would you be able to do? You can have a muscular upper arm a powerful lower arm but you couldn't do anything because the joint is not functioning.

You know what the joint speaks of? Fellowship. You can have a husband who thinks he is very spiritual an upper arm and a wife who thinks she is very spiritual a lower arm but they can't fellowship together they are useless.

Useless for God. Or two brothers. One who is very proud of his ability another one who is proud of his different ability but they can't fellowship together they can't work together. They are useless. It will be like a hand like this.

What can you do with a hand where the fingers can't bend? The elbow can't bend? It's useless. It's far better to have a little child who is not so strong but whose joints are functioning. The joints are very very important.

That's why we need to build fellowship. And that's why in our church meeting on Sunday morning we gathered together about 9 .30 we have our service till 11 .15 or 11 .30 sometimes and then we hang around till 1 .30 to fellowship with one another to meet one another to get to know one another.

If one member is suffering that all members suffer with it we get to know one another. We don't just rush off. They do that in a movie theater. Once the movie is over they rush off. Don't treat church like a movie theater.

Take time to get to know those who are part of the same church. If you believe that we are to be one family. The church is meant to be a family not a congregation. In the Old Testament it was a congregation a huge crowd.

It was the biggest mega congregation 600 ,000 men plus so many women and children and then there was this one mighty leader Moses. That was old covenant. And when people build churches like that we have to call it what it is an old covenant church with huge crowds of people with one mighty gifted pastor or preacher.

I want to say that is not the type of church Jesus is building. In the Old Testament it was like that because they didn't have the Holy Spirit within each of them and that is the condition of many churches today because most of the people sitting in those churches are not encouraged to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

They are not encouraged to fulfill a function in the body because that will take away from this mighty pastor who is trying to make himself so great and appreciated by everybody. Such people are a hindrance to the building of the body of Christ however gifted they may be.

That's why you read Jesus saying in the last days some people will come up to me and say Lord we did this for you we preached and we did miracles and the Lord will say get away from me you never knew me.

You never knew that I was building a body. And it's very interesting to see a paraphrase of that in the Message Bible. He says you used me. You read that verse in Matthew 7 in the Message Bible. Matthew 7, 22, 23 it says you just used me to make yourself important.

Do you know the number of people in the world who are doing that today? Preachers and pastors using Jesus to make themselves important. You know when one little cell in the body or a group of cells takes all the nourishment to itself and crushes out the other cells you know what doctors call it?

A cancer. That's a cancer. It's supposed to be this size small but it doesn't want to remain that size. I'm not happy with the size God made me. I want to be bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger. That's what doctors call a cancer.

A lot of cancers in churches worldwide today. They need to be cut out. If Jesus were here he'd do that. He's building a body. We recognize that there are different functions some are more important than the others.

I agree. But what I say is everyone has got a function. Everyone's got something to do. And the joints are very important. So seek to build fellowship with one another. It's very, very important my brothers and sisters.

Without fellowship there'll be no body. In the old covenant it was like that. One king in Israel he was the superman there. Or one high priest and all the others were just sitting around. One high priest, one king and very often just one prophet.

But as soon as you come to the pages of the New Testament what do you see? Jesus sent out his disciples two by two. There is no more of this one person. John the Baptist was the last, lone, great individual prophet.

But as soon as you come to the New Testament Jesus sends out his disciples two by two because that is where there's fellowship. You can't have fellowship with just one person. We need to understand that from the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came he baptized them into one body.

It was like a hundred and twenty pieces of iron that were dropped into a fire and they came out as one piece. And that's how a church should be. All functioning together. Think of the picture of a body.