Which is His Body - Meaning, Part 2

Driving home: Rather, this is a figure of speech, divine, designed to convey great and sublime, substantial spiritual realities.

The concept of the church as Christ's body is compared to an explorer entering a small cave that opens into magnificent subterranean caverns, illustrating the profound depth and significance of this doctrine.

And when one begins to examine what was in the mind of the apostle from what he writes elsewhere about the church as the body of Christ, one realizes that we've come to something analogous, something parallel to the experience of an explorer, who comes to the mouth of what looks to be just a little cave. But once he enters in, he finds there opens up to him this panoramic vision of subterranean caverns just magnificent in the sights that are there. We can read through Ephesians 1 and we say, and he gave him his head over all things to the church which is his body, and that looks like a very in...

3:51 - 5:14 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Believers in a yet imperfect state, yet so united to Christ as members of the body to the head that all that affects them affects him.

Sticking a needle into the smallest part of the body (little toe) is used to illustrate the intense sympathetic relationship between the least member of Christ's body and the head, Jesus Christ.

it unto one of these my brethren even the least he did it into me the right just yet amazed that the Lord says you have demonstrated your vital attachment to me and love and in faith by your you in that state, he says, when you saw but one, even the most insignificant, you see the thought? No matter how insignificant a member of the body may be, there is a sympathetic relationship with it and the head. You may take the last eighth of an inch of the smallest member of your body, which is probably your little toe on your foot, and stick a needle into it half an inch and see how much of a sympath...

18:54 - 20:04 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Believers in a yet imperfect state, yet so united to Christ as members of the body to the head that all that affects them affects him.

The coordinated relationship of a car engine's parts is contrasted with the sympathetic relationship in a living body, highlighting that mechanical coordination lacks the 'nerves' or feeling present in the church.

For what I do in my treatment of my brother is felt by the head, the Lord Jesus, even the least of the brethren. But not only is this a sympathetic relationship, of the body to the head, but of the members of the body each to the other. You see, there may be a coordinated relationship without sympathetic relationship. When you get out at the end of this service and stick your key in the car and turn the crank, there is a wonderfully operating coordinated relationship between rings, pistons, bearings, nuts, bolts, screws, and a lot of other mechanical things. And if it isn't coordinated, I have...

24:29 - 25:33 Read in full sermon

The point: Pray for a well-developed nerve system throughout the body, for the grace to feel what our brethren feel.

The immediate and full-body response when a hand is caught in a door illustrates how 'when one member suffers, the whole body suffers with it,' emphasizing the sympathetic relationship among believers.

all the members suffer with it. Or one member suffereth, all the members suffer with it. Or one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye at Corinth are the body of Christ, and severally members thereof. You see that sympathetic relationship emphasized so that what happens to one becomes the experience of all, whether pain or whether delight. Let me illustrate from the human body. If my hand is caught in the door inadvertently, carelessly, a message goes to the brain. The brain sends out a signal to the other hand to pull the door open, to get the finger out. And if I can't pu...

26:42 - 27:26 Read in full sermon

The point: Pray for a well-developed nerve system throughout the body, for the grace to feel what our brethren feel.

The loss of nerve sensation in leprosy, where flesh can be seared without a message reaching the brain, is used to lament the lack of sympathetic feeling and involvement within many visible churches.

But the whole body is engaged in the plight of that finger. When one member suffers, the whole body suffers with it. Such then is the sympathetic relationship between the members of the body, each to the other. And whenever in the human experience this ceases, as it does in certain forms of leprosy.

27:26 - 27:49 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The body is the necessary means by which the designs and purposes of the head are brought into realization.

The humorous idea of a head thinking clothes onto a body is used to illustrate that thoughts and designs of the head require the body's physical action for realization, introducing the 'necessary and functional' aspect of the church.

maybe mama had to tumble you out of bed, or maybe you went in and tumbled her out of bed, whichever way it was, when you got up this morning, and your head said, uh-oh, Sunday morning, got to put my Sunday go-to-meeting vest on. When your head thought those thoughts,

34:27 - 34:41 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The body is the necessary means by which the designs and purposes of the head are brought into realization.

Mr. Rotman, a pianist, thinking of a Beethoven composition but folding his arms instead of playing, illustrates that the head's artistry and designs must be implemented by the body (hands) to be realized, connecting to Christ's work through his church.

heads. They can think, but they never do anything. They're dreamers. Now, we need our dreamers, but if the world were made up of dreamers, we'd be in an awful mess. No, you see, the signals of the head must be implemented by the mind. The mind must be implemented by the mind. The mind must be by the body, by its energies, by its faculties. Let's take an illustration again. It'll help also to give a prayer request. I have two reasons for doing it. Mr. Rotman will be leaving tomorrow for Vienna to take part in the All-Beethoven Festival there, an international competition, and we do want to be r...

35:50 - 37:14 Read in full sermon