Body of Christ

I am preaching this Sunday on the Body of Christ, the Church. It has been a great study and I look forward to presenting it.

We as the Church are God's representation of Christ on earth today. We must not think of the church as a place, location or building, but rather as people. Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it well when he said, "The Church is nothing but a section of humanity in which Christ has really taken form."

Throughout history God has made Himself known and seen through the indwelling of temples. Today He chooses to indwell us and be made known through us. Philip Yancy in his book, Disappointment with God, put it this way:

"Three temples appear in the Bible, and, taken together, they illustrate a progression: God revealed himself first as Father, then as Son, and finally as Holy Spirit. The first temple was a magnificent structure built by Solomon and rebuilt by Herod. The second was a 'temple' of Jesus' body ('Destroy it,' he said, 'and I will raise it again in three days'). And now a third temple has taken shape, fashioned out of individual human beings."

If we have God's Spirit living within us, then He should be very visible to the world around us. If we, the Church, are the representation of Christ on earth today, we must continually be asking ourselves...How well does the world see Jesus?