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Series: Bridges

Discovering God in Church

God never planned for you to live the Christian life all by yourself. He designed the new life He gives us to be experienced together with other Christians. In fact, we can really only see the Christian life working when Christians are in relationship with others. This is what the Church is all about.

What is the Church?

When many people think of the Church, they think of cathedrals, stained glass windows and buildings with a cross on top. But the Church is more than just buildings and furniture. It is even more than Sunday services and mid-week meetings. The Church is God's people. Read Ephesians 5:25-27*.

Jesus didn't die for buildings. He died for people. When the Bible says that Jesus died for the Church, it means He died for you and me. The Church is all those who have been "redeemed" - all those who have responded to God's invitation of a new life. The buildings that we see are simply the places where the Church meets.

The Church is a Family

Read Ephesians 2:11-13,19. When you are born into God's family, you become a child of God in every sense of the word. But you are not the only child. You have many other brothers and sisters, who are also in God's family. The Church is the meeting together of God's family. And so, the Church is all about relationships - a relationship, first of all, with God - and then, just as important, an ongoing relationship with other Christians.

The Church is a Body

"The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ...Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it" (1 Corinthians 12:12,27).
The Bible says that the Church is like a body. Our bodies are made up of many parts, each with a special function - so is the Church. Our bodies are the physical extension of ourselves. People can only know what we are thinking and feeling if we use our bodies (our hands, our voices, our eyes) to show them. Jesus Christ is now in heaven. But He hasn't stopped reaching out to people's lives. How does He do this? God's Spirit works through His people - the Church - to reach out and show the love and concern of Jesus to others. We are like His body - His hands, His feet, His voice - to help other people discover God for themselves. And so, the Church is all about the ministry of Jesus, touching other lives through our lives.

The Church is a Fellowship

God has a goal for your life - He wants you to begin to grow as a Christian, to allow the image of God He has stamped on your heart to work out into every area of your life. God has designed the Church to help individual Christians to grow "until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13).

This is why God created the Church - to be a family, a body, and a fellowship of mutual support. We don't just grow individually. We grow together into everything that Christ is - "the fullness of Christ".

The Bible says: "...speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work" (Ephesians 4:15-16).

The Church is made up of many millions of people all around the world. And everyone of them is unique - different in race, culture, traditions. Even individual churches are different. What makes us the "body of Christ" is what we have in common. We have all believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been "redeemed" - purchased back to God through the shedding of Jesus' blood. And we have God's Spirit living in our hearts. The Holy Spirit is our common bond. It is the Holy Spirit who makes us a family, and it is the Holy Spirit who makes us a body. It is the Holy Spirit who makes the Church work. But for the Church to be the Church, Christians must actually meet together regularly. This is why the Bible tells us: "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another..." (Hebrews 10:24-25).

Where the rubber meets the road

When you are born into God's family, God recreates His image in you. He places His Holy Spirit in your heart so that you can live with God every day. But Church is where "the rubber meets the road" - where what is on the inside begins to work outwards. Relationships is where the "real me" comes out. This is why so many marriages are on the rocks, why families struggle, why friendships fall through. When we come close to other people, then the "roots" of our lives begin to show. But Church is where your life's roots can grow more firmly into the life of God - and this will have a deep affect on all your other relationships.
"But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator" (Colossians 3:8-10).

The right stuff

The Bible tells us there are some special ingredients needed in our lives to allow the Church to work properly. These ingredients are found in Colossians 3:12-14: The Bible tells us clearly: "Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us...We love because (God) first loved us. If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen" (1 John 4:11-12,16,19-20).

The fruit of God's life

To be a Christian is the hardest thing in the world. Because being a Christian means being like Jesus. It means having the same love and heart of forgiveness as God Himself. Read 1 John 3:16-18. The problem is, the standard is too high. How can we ever live up to it all? How can we lay down our own self-interest in order to love others? Only Jesus was ever able to do it.

But there is good news! Read Galatians 5:22-26. All those things in that verse - love, joy, peace, etc - are called "the fruit of the Spirit". They are the product of the Holy Spirit's own nature! You don't need to struggle to be a Christian - you just have to allow God's Spirit to work in your life. If your roots are planted every day in the life of God's Spirit, then the fruit you produce will be His fruit.

"He has by his own action given us everything that is necessary for living the truly good life...making it possible for you to...share in God's essential nature" (2 Peter 1:3-4, Phillips).

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Copyright & copy; 1981,1996 Paul, Bunty and David Collins. All rights reserved. This study may be freely used and reproduced, wholly or in part, by the Christian Church for the non-profit purposes of study and training only, provided copyright and contact information is included.

Unless otherwise stated, all scriptures quoted in these studies are from the New International Version of the Bible, & copy; New York International Bible Society, used by permission. Other versions referred to are: KJV (King James Version), NKJB (New King James Bible), TLB (The Living Bible), Amp (The Amplified Bible) and The Message. All versions used by permission.

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