Day 146: What is The Vision That Defines The Church?
Ephesians 1:22–23
And God put all things under Christ’s feet, and gave Him to the church as head over all things.
Now The Church is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Father God has given us a Vision of The Kingdom defining all reality in the future. He has also entrusted us—the Church, the Body of Christ—with the work of “making disciples from all nations.” In the Church, He is transforming us to be like His One Unique Son—our Lord Jesus—through the work of the Holy Spirit. Each of us who are In Christ has been shaped and gifted to play a key role in this work.
This week, we will look at the Big Picture that will overview and outline our journey for the rest of this study. We want to see and have some idea of who we are and where Father God is leading us as we follow Christ in the Mission He has given us as the Church, the Body of Christ.
What is the Vision that Defines The Church?
This week, we are going to take a look at the “big picture” of our Vision and Mission as Christ’s people. In order to do that, we will be asking and answering some key questions. To get the larger view of this process, take a look at the following chart and study it for a few minutes.
One of the principles that shapes the way we organize MilktoMeat is: “Teach the Truth in the right order, at the right time.” The chart above seeks to clarify that principle. Over the course of this week, we are going to explore each of these questions and the answers that we give will serve as the foundation for the following weeks of our study.
We have already addressed many of these questions on the individual, personal level throughout MilktoMeat. Now we will focus on who these questions are answered on the interpersonal, communal level—seeing things through our vision as Christ’s people.
The two over-arching ideas here are Vision and Mission. The Scriptures give us a Vision for reality by answering the 5 key questions in this chart. Vision is vitally important to anything we do. We need to see both where we have come from and where we are heading. Specifically for us, we need to have a clear view of what things would look like if our prayer, “Father… let your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven” was answered and so defined reality.
Once we have Vision shaped by the Truth, we can now focus on our Mission: What has Father God given us to do in Christ through the Holy Spirit? What is our purpose as The Church, the Body of Christ? Where are we headed as Christ’s people? Do we intend to follow Jesus as He leads us? What means do we have to accomplish these goals? These are the types of questions we will be dealing with.
Now take note of the order of the questions in the middle of the chart. Notice they are lined out 1, 2, 5, 3, 4. We have numbered them this way because when we take a look at the “Big Picture” of anything, it is important understand the logical order of these things, not just the sequential order. Once we ask and answer the questions of Who are we? and Why are we here?, there is the temptation to immediately start doing something. So if we say that we are here to know and serve God and one another, we might want to immediately start doing something that would accomplish those goals.
Before we do anything, however, we must answer the real third question and that is Where are we heading? This is the question of goals. In our case, these are the goals that our Heavenly Father has set for us as His beloved children In Christ. These goals are the ones that are shaped by the Vision and Mission that Jesus has given to us.
Once we know what these goals are, we will then ask, “What means (tools) has our Father given to us to achieve these goals?” and “Do we really intend to do these things in the Way that our Father has instructed us to do them?” We want to be sure that we are doing the things that are pleasing to the Father in Christ through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.
In the final analysis, we can test to see if we are truly living in our Vision and Mission by asking the question, “Are we practicing what we say we believe?” Just as Jesus told us, “A tree is known by its fruit” (Matthew 12:33; Luke 6:44), so we can see that our behavior—what we do—reveals what we truly value and believe.
With that “big picture” in mind, let’s start working through these questions.
Before you move ahead take a minute or two and think about how you might answer these questions based on what you know now. Think about how you would answer them in the context of The Church, The Body of Christ.
Who Are We? [DEFINITION]
As we begin, keep in mind that there are two main ways to think about and answer these questions: 1) the personal, individual identity level, or 2) the interpersonal, communal level. We have already addressed many of these questions on the personal, individual identity level. Even then, we saw how are relationships with others define and shape who we are and how we think about ourselves.
So now, let’s build on all that we have discussed before and think about these questions and answers in the way they shape our view of ourselves together “In Christ.” Take a look at the following passages:
Matthew 16:18
[Jesus said] And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. {ESV}
Acts 20:28
[Paul speaking to the Elders at Ephesus] “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with His own blood. {ESV}
1 Timothy 3:14–15
[Paul writing to Timothy, his disciple] I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, 15 if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, pillar and buttress of the truth.
Ephesians 1:22–23
And God put all things under Christ’s feet, and gave Him to the church as head over all things. 23 Now the church is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Romans 12:4–5
For just as in one body we have many members, and not all the members serve the same function, 5 so we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually we are members who belong to one another.
1 Corinthians 12:12–13, 27
For just as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body—though many—are one body, so too is Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Whether Jews or Greeks or slaves or free, we were all made to drink of the one Spirit…
Now you are Christ’s body, and each of you is a member of it.
These passages form the foundation for the rest of our discussions. We are not going to dig too deeply into the details now, instead just take some notes on the “big ideas.”
The first mention of the “church” comes from Jesus himself. In the Matthew 16 passage, the Lord says that He would build His church. The word that He chooses here “church” is the term ekklesia (ek-lay-SEE-ah). This term was understood in that time as an assembly or congregation of people with a clearly defined “membership.” In Jesus’ day, it was most often used to refer to citizens of a particular city-state. In the New Testament, the ekklesia—the church—is the community of Christ, the people that belong to Him and unite in His Name. Building this Church is the work that Christ is doing in and through us now.
In Acts 20, Paul refers to the Church as a “flock” which probably comes out of Jesus’ teaching that He is the Good Shepherd and His people are His sheep, His flock (see John 10:1-30). In couple of passages in Paul’s letters, the Church is identified as the “church of God” or “household of God”. In Paul’s writings, when he simply refers to “God” he most often has Father God in mind. The Church belongs to the One True God. As such, it is the pillar and buttress (support) of the Truth. That is a centrally important truth that we will return to.
In those remaining passages, we get a clear description of the Church as Christ’s body. In Ephesians 1:23, Paul states this clearly: “the Church is His [Christ’s] body.” Jesus is intimately, vitally connected to His people. This passage also gives us insight into the purpose of the Church: “the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” The Church is here to express the full reality of who Jesus is! We are individually designed, called and gifted to live and work together to show who Jesus is to the world!
Finally, you can the “we who are many are one” idea in the remaining passages. In order for the world to see the many facets of Jesus’ glory, every member of His body is necessary and united through the work of the Holy Spirit. These are all truths that we will continue to discuss and build upon.
Thinking about all we have discussed today, is there anything new that cause you to think about these things in a new or different way?
*You can find a complete list of all the MilktoMeat readings here.
