If I should scream, "Look, there's a nose!" and you see a nose naturally attached to a person's face, you probably wouldn't find that very shocking. Yet if I should say, "Look! There's a nose!" and it is resting on the dining table, detached from a body, you would almost certainly consider that grotesque. So if you agree that it's morbid for body parts to be separated from the body, what do you think God sees when He looks at church members who refuse to associate with His body, the church? Like it or not, when you separate from the body, you present to the world a distorted picture of Jesus. It is only as we are together that the world gets the right picture. Only then can the full potential of each person's gifts and ministry be realized.
There is yet another reason why you need church fellowship. You need to grow. Many people tell me: "Doug, I read my Bible, but I don't get anything out of it," or "I come to church and prayer meeting, but I don't see any benefit." Well, I'm here to tell you that you need it-even though at first you might not perceive that you're getting anything out of it.
Consider how parents speak to their newborn baby. If the baby could comprehend everything they were saying, I'm sure he would think, "My parents have really lost it!" because we sometimes say the strangest things to babies! But even still, the baby listens. At first he doesn't understand what they are saying, but he is slowly soaking it in nonetheless. Pretty soon the child begins to recognize a word here and there, and then he starts to appreciate the communication. We are watching this miracle happen again in our own home with Nathan. He's understanding what we're saying to him, and now he's trying to communicate back. At first it must have been a bit boring when we'd talk to him. He'd just lie there and gaze around the room. He didn't have any idea what we were saying. But we continued talking and he kept listening, and eventually he began to recognize our voices and our words.
The Bible is the Word of God, and indeed it is a different kind of language. When you first hear or read the Word, you may have a little difficulty recognizing some of the words and concepts and you might not understand everything that your heavenly Father is saying to you. But as you persistently continue listening, His Word becomes more and more clear.
No matter what our spiritual age, we can't expect to know how to do everything. There is growth involved. Babies must learn through repetition how to get up and walk, how to talk, and how to feed themselves. That's also the way it is with the body of Christ. As we continue exposing ourselves to Christ and other Christians, that growth takes place. "And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment." Philippians 1:9.
Divided We Fall
In John 17 is recorded Christ's prayer for each one of His church members. A major part of His prayer for us was "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." Verse 21. This theme is echoed in John 13:35 as well, where Jesus said, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." Jesus knew that the love and unity of the church would be a powerful part of our witness to the world.
I'm sure that when the devil heard Christ utter these truths, he realized that if the world would believe in Jesus because of our unity, then it stands to reason that the world would disbelieve by our division. And Satan has been working toward that goal ever since.
The devil works like a wolf stalking a lamb. He knows as long as the lamb is with the flock inside the fold, or especially close to the shepherd, the lamb is safe. But if the wolf can chase and scatter the flock from the shepherd and from one another, he can easily bring down a lamb that has strayed off by itself. In the same way, the devil wants to separate from the flock the lambs (baby Christians who are more vulnerable) so that he can destroy them.
I've heard that when thoroughbred horses are challenged by an enemy, they will put their heads together and aim their rear legs out to kick their attacker. On the other hand, a group of donkeys will aim their heads outward when threatened and kick each other.
Sometimes the church, when threatened, makes the same mistake. We ought to press together and support one another, but too often what happens is that the devil divides us or gets us to turn our backs on each other. He knows that once we are divided, we become easy prey.
One of my favorite authors has often repeated, "Oh, how many times, when I have seemed to be in the presence of God and holy angels, I have heard the angel voice saying, 'Press together, press together, press together. Do not let Satan cast his hellish shadow between brethren. Press together; in unity there is strength.'"1
The Lord continues in John 17: "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one." Verse 22. The love and power that God gave Jesus, He gives to His body! You and I are to be as united with one another as are God the Father and God the Son. Now let me ask you a question. How openly and how thoroughly did Jesus and the Father support one another? There was an unbroken union until the cross. "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me." Verse 23.
The outstanding message in John 17:21-23 is first of all that the word "one" is repeated four times. I think He says it four times because the church is made up of people who come from every background imaginable and who are as different as north, south, east, and west. There is every stripe and type in the body of Christ, and we need to recognize that our diverse gifts are essential and needed. We can realize our strength and full potential only as we come together, work together, and stay together.
Standing in the Storm
Every summer my family and I go to a Christian camp meeting in northern California. It is held at one of the most beautiful campgrounds in North America. On the way to the camp, you drive through a grove of redwoods-the most magnificent giants of all the trees in the world. They're not the oldest trees, but they are the tallest, and very impressive.
Redwoods are unique trees for several reasons. For one thing, they grow successfully only in groves. One of the ranchers near my house in Covelo planted a redwood tree, and it grew very quickly to be hundreds of feet tall. But then a storm came along and blew it right over. This is because the coastal redwood does not send down a taproot. Its roots are only a few feet deep, even though the tree itself might be 360 feet tall. Coastal redwoods survive by growing in groves. The trees spread out their roots and interweave them with the roots of other trees. Then, when the wind comes, they hold each other up because their roots are knit and interlocked together. By themselves, they don't stand very long.
You and I are something like those trees. You might think you're a maverick oak tree and that you don't need anybody else, but you're fooling yourself. Christians need to be part of the church. Just as every cell in the body is fed and cleansed by the blood, we all need the blood of Jesus for power and cleansing. We need to pray for and support one another. Even Jesus longed for that support as He faced the bitterness of the cross. "Then He came to the disciples and found them asleep, and said to Peter, "What, could ye not watch with me one hour?" Matthew 26:40. We need to bear one another's burdens, just as the nose and ears hold up the glasses for the eyes. We need to let our lives, like the roots of those coastal redwood trees, be interwoven with one another so we will have a support system when the storm comes. Woe be to the isolated tree when the storm comes! And the storm is coming.
As it says in Hebrews 10:25, we need to be firmly committed to corporate worship and assembly-especially, or "so much more, as ye see the day approaching." Do you see the Day of the Lord approaching? The closer that Day gets, the more committed we need to be to the church-the body of Christ.
