Revitalized/ Week 2

The Church: Vital and Vitalizing

Passage February 6, 2022

I. Introduction:

A. We have all heard “a picture is worth 1,000 words!” That simply means that

when we see something we can better understand what they mean than just trying

to describe them by words.

1. Let me give you an example of that!

a) If I was to tell you that our grandchildren had a great time at Disney

when we took them there – that would lead your mind to think it was a

fun time.

b) But these two pictures help you better capture the heart of just how great

it was for them!

(1) Tinker Bell

(2) Dance party

B. The Bible uses metaphors for the same purpose so we can better understand the

truth

1. In many ways a metaphor is simply a word picture that help us describe

something. It puts the idea into high definition and adds color to it as it states

that one thing is another thing.

2. It help us catch a glimpse of God’s truth in a fresh way that even 1,000 more

words cannot give us!

C. This morning I want to touch on one of the biblical images/metaphors for the

church that help us better understand just how vital the church is and how it adds

vitality to our lives!

1. We are seeking to revitalize our lives and our church after the cultural

earthquake we experienced over the last few years

2. By getting back to the kingdom norms and practices that we find in the early

church when it was a newborn baby in Acts 2!

D. Before I give you that image let me give you a few reminders about the church so

we have a little bit of context to put the images into.

1. The church is not a building made up of bricks but it is saved people of flesh

and blood.

2. The church has a mission

a) Upward to God – to bring Him glory

b) Inward to other believers – to build each other up and care for each other

c) Outward to the lost – to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to them.

Even to the uttermost part of the earth.

E. The image I want us to look at this morning is a body. The church is the body of

Christ.

1. Jesus is the head and all the believer make up the body of Christ.

2. Numerous times in the New Testament we see references to the church as the

body of Christ.

3. Here is one that says it directly. Ephesians 1:22-23

• Today I want to show us that the church, the body of Christ is both vital and

vitalizing! So let’s start by seeing that …

II. The church is vital –

A. Let me start by establishing what I mean by vital!

1. To me a lot of people use vital and important synonymously. But vital is

about three notches above important.

2. Illustration of the fall

a) A number of years ago I fell off a ladder while I was painting and I

severely separated my shoulder. Very serious and very painful

eventually ended up with surgery.

b) A year later I was in Oaxaca when a woman fell off a ladder, separated

her shoulder and had a heart attack. As painful and serious as a

separated shoulder can be, if you do not keep the heart going the

shoulder really does not matter.

c) While the shoulder is important you still can live on with it separated.

One the other hand the heart is vital, if the heart does not continue to

work your life is done.

B. The church is not important but it is vital because it is the body of Christ!

1. Stop and think with me for a moment about what a body is.

2. We learned not long ago in a series that we are made up of three parts.

a) Spirit – that is where the life is and connects us with God

b) Soul – that is where our unique personality is and connects us to other

people

c) Body – that is our earth suit that allows us to connect with the material

world we live in.

3. The spirit and the soul use the body to express themselves. The body is the

external material visible instrument through which our internal immaterial

invisible life expresses itself in this world

a) It is simply the instrument which we live our life through!

b) It is the part of us that people can see and identify us by.

C. Thus the church, as the body of Christ is vital because it is God’s chosen means

by which the life of Jesus Christ is expressed in this world.

1. Turn and read Ephesians 1:22-23

2. Then he switched images from the body to a building but we see the same

idea that the church is the place where God’s presence is today, His dwelling

place, and His current temple! Read Ephesians 2:21-22

D. The invisible and internal spirit of Jesus now lives in and through His people!

1. We are what people see and identify Jesus with for the good or for the bad

dependent upon how we live!

2. Like the song by Casting Crowns says “If we are the body why aren't His

arms reaching?

Why aren't His hands healing?

Why aren't His words teaching?

And if we are the body why aren't His feet going?

Why is His love not showing them there is a way?

E. The church is vital because we are the ones God brings glory to Himself through,

we are the ones He builds and cares for each other through, we are the ones He

brings the gospel to the lost world through we are the ones that the very life of

Christ is expressed in this world!

• And not only is the church vital but it also

III. The church vitalizing

A. By vitalizing I mean it gives vitality! Vitality is that state of having abundance or

intense activity.

1. It is a life that is full of exuberance, liveliness, robust, vibrant, vigor. Simply

there is a bounce and energy, gusto and zip to your spiritual life

2. When a life is full of Jesus and the graces He brings to us it cannot help but

be a life of vitality!

B. One of the greatest graces or gifts that God gives to us is the church. We (you

and me) cannot live the fullness of life that God intends for us unless we are both

contributing to and receiving of the graces that God intended to flow the church,

that is you and me the believers!

C. I want to just mention two practical ways we experience God’s graces and

blessing through the body

1. Spiritual gifts – the supernatural abilities that the Holy Spirit gives us to

minister to one another!

a) 1 Corinthians 12 teaches us that each one of us has a spiritual gift or two,

and they are all different gifts and to different degrees by design for God

to work through us for the common good of the body

2. One anothers – simply this means that we return to each other in due measure

these things with which God calls us to bless and minister to each other.

a) Here is a sampling of some of the one anothers

3. Do you not think that if we lived with each other experiencing the

supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit in our lives and church and impacting

each other with the one anothers it would add vitality to our church and lives?

D. Finally we are deeply dependent upon one another and the proper functioning of

each member

1. Read Ephesians 4:15-16

2. Illustration this about the body with my drop foot.

a) My foot does not work properly because of my back and not my foot!

(1) The arthritis in my back squeezed against the nerves that control

my foot and destroyed them.

(2) Then as my foot would not work properly it has impacted my hip

on that side which ends up throwing off the hip on the other side.

(3) I think you get the point of how the whole body is dependent upon

the other members for the health of the body!

b) That means that the person sitting in the first row of the main floor is not

functioning properly or fully it will impact the person sitting in the last

row of the balcony.

3. You matter to the body and your full participation with the body of Christ at

MVC has a large impact upon the church’s ability to carry out the three fold

mission God has created the church for and also to the vitality or the

abundance of life that each believer at MVC will experience!

IV. Communion

A. Interesting that we always connect communion with remembering the death of

Jesus. 1 Corinthians 10 tells us there is another thing that communion, reminds

us, as it becomes that picture that is worth 1000 words.

1. Listen as I read 1 Corinthians 10:16-17

2. Did you catch it? It pictures for us the fact that the many of us members

individually make up one body!

B. As we learned last week it is important not just to know these truths but to believe

them and do them. But I think Romans 12:3 shows us an attitude that will stand

in the way of anyone doing what we learned today.

a) Read Rom 12:3-4

2. This verse is directly connected to living as a body and reveals to us the

foundational attitude that must be in place!

a) Humility - recognizing our need for others whom God has gifted as

much as He has gifted me!

b) Pride, self-sufficiency, independence destroys body life

3. If our attitude is anything like Romans 12:3 not only will the rest of this

series have little impact upon you but also God’s vital church, yes even MVC

which was created for His glory, the believers’ edification and the lost’s

salvation will be less effective and the vitality of yourself and each believer

here will be impacted!

C. Reflect