JESUS IS HEAD OF THE CHURCH, Part 2
"Living in Christian Community" By warden Renee Knapp
What does it mean to be the
body of Christ and the head of that body?
The Bible clearly gives the
symbolism of Christ as head of one body and the church as the body of Christ. “And He is the head of the body, the church….” (Col.
1:18) “All of you together are
Christ’s body, and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it.” (1
Corinthians 12:27 NLT) As the body, we,
the church- the body of people whom Jesus saved and purchased with His blood,
are to represent Christ in this world.
We are to be His hands and feet- reaching out to all, the churched and
the un-churched. As Paul says, each of us here at Christ Church is a necessary
part of the body. There is no such thing
as a small service to God. Likewise, every ministry at Christ Church matters-
size does not equate to importance. We all need each other to function in
harmony. We are Jesus’ body. He does not
want a sick body out of harmony. But,
if one part of the body is hurt or tired the entire body is affected. When that happens, we must take Jesus’ lead,
as head of the body, and work toward healing and reconciliation.
The concept of the church being the
body of Christ is not difficult to understand.
But what about headship and being the head of that body? Any organization or institution must have a
head. The church is no different. In the
past 15 plus years, CCQF has had 3 or more part time priests, a couple of
bishops and presiding bishops, and a couple archbishops. All of the people in those positions
change. They are voted in or hired. And when people change, opinions, ideologies,
passions, and agendas change. The
nature of the universe is to change. The
nature of humans is change. But a body
cannot have a head that changes. And when we say head,
what does that mean? It means governing, ruling authority. When Jesus rose from the dead and God seated
Him at God’s right hand, God gave Jesus supreme authority. “And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him
to be head over everything for the church, which
is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.” (Ephesians
1:22-13.) That is what Jesus is at CCQF. Jesus is the
ruling authority.
To get an
understanding of what headship is, lets take a look at some of the functions of
the head:
1.
The head receives
information from every member of the body.
2.
The head uses that
information to make decisions that are in the best interest of the whole body,
not just one member of it.
3.
The head initiates
action for the members.
4.
The head gives ongoing
direction and supervision.
Looking at the Biblical
relationship with God being the head of Jesus (1Cor11:3) we find the perfect
pattern for being under headship. In
John 5:19-20, Jesus said: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can
do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son
also does. 20 For the Father
loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater
works than these, so that you will be amazed.” In Jesus’ entire ministry, he did not
initiate anything. He only did what the
Father initiated.
As Jesus was under headship of the Father,
we at Christ Church are under the headship of Jesus. But what does that mean. It should mean that Jesus receives input from
the church, makes the decisions for the church, Jesus should be initiates the
actions of the church, and Jesus should be giving ongoing guidance.
Sermon on “Living in Christian Community:
Jesus is Head of the Church.”
By Renee Knapp, Warden
So how are we doing at Christ Church? The way to communicate with Jesus is through
prayer and his Word. I can tell you that
Father John and many others spend many hours in prayer giving Jesus input from
and about the church. Prayer is used at
vestry meetings to communicate individual needs and the needs of the church. The decisions made affecting the church are
made after thoughtful, sincere prayer.
It is our desire that we are
acting only on things Jesus initiates and not ourselves. If we act on things He initiates, we are
guaranteed a positive outcome. “being
confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to
completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philipians 1:6) But God is not committed to finish or bless
anything He didn’t start. The other way to communicate with Jesus is through His Word. As such, there is Bible study at every vestry
meeting. We absolutely must make sure
we are following his teachings.
How
can we live out Jesus as head of our church?
The first thing we do is preach and teach
God’s Word.
The second thing is how we represent Jesus
on earth.
In John 14:10 Jesus
says, “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
The words I say to you don’t come from me, but the Father lives in me and does
his own work.” And in John 20:21 “Then
Jesus said again, “Peace be with you. As the
Father sent me, I now send you.” We
should be able to say to anyone,” The words you hear us speak, Jesus gave them
to us. The works you see us do, that is
Jesus living in us doing His work. If
you’ve seen us, you’ve seen Jesus. And we cannot do anything by ourselves. It all comes from Christ.”
Therefore, the most important truth in
church leadership is Jesus is the head of the church! Christ has always been and always will be the only head of
the church.
I will leave
you with this, from one of my favorite preachers:
“The
Church of God, in a very special manner, calls Jesus "our Lord," for there
is not, and there cannot be any head of the Church except the Lord Jesus
Christ. It is awful blasphemy for any man on earth to call himself Christ's
vicar and the head of the church, and it is a usurpation of the crown rights of
King Jesus for any king or queen to be called the head of the church, for the
true Church of Jesus Christ can have no head but Jesus Christ himself. I am
thankful that there is no head to the church of which I am a member save Jesus
Christ himself, nor dare I be a member of any church which would content to any
headship but his.” Charles Spurgeon
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