Properly Discerning the Body of Christ

Well, as we covered in part of what I mentioned last week, and as I know have also been mentioned prior, in weeks prior to last week, we read in the book of 1 Corinthians a number of statements that Paul makes where he gives instruction to the church regarding the Passover and regarding the Days of Unleavened Breath. You find that this particular letter is, in a sense, a unique letter in that it gives direction. It gives specific direction to the church of God. And of course, in this case, to the church of God that was meeting in Corinth, the congregation that met there in Corinth, it was a congregation that Paul deeply loved. He had been there for over a year and a half in working with so many people that God drew into the church. Whenever you read about that in the book of Acts, you find that Paul says, well, I ended up being there. You know, God has many people that he is going to draw into this congregation.

Now, as we read in 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, you find that they had several problems. There were numerous different difficulties that the congregation suffered. But that didn't set apart the entire fact that God had drawn them. He had brought them together. He had brought them into the church of God.

And whenever Paul is writing and telling them to keep the feast, he's talking about the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and whenever he tells them that Jesus, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us, he was telling them specifically what they were to continue to do. And even though over the next few hundred years there was going to be great confusion and even great deception that would come upon the church and upon church in general as far as the rise of a false church, you would still have these statements from Paul, and not only here in 1 Corinthians 5, where I'm referencing, but also in 1 Corinthians 11. And whenever we look at 1 Corinthians 11, again as we did last time, we're told two primary things as we are to take the bread and the wine and to eat the Passover. There are two specific things that are mentioned. In order to properly do that, in order to do that with reverence, in order to do that with respect to God and respect to our Savior Jesus Christ, we first of all need to examine ourselves. We need to go through, and I know we've been encouraged to do this, and I'm sure all of us are thinking about this, and I hope praying about this. Because in a sense, it's somewhat easy, even as Dan was mentioning in the sermon, that temptation is all around us. You've got to be working on fighting that or on pushing that away. And if we're not examining ourselves on a regular basis, if we're not considering where we are, even where the susceptible areas are, and realizing that when we're tired or when we're lonely or when we're hurt or when we're mad, when we're angry, those are susceptible areas for sure.

Those are times when we are less than we ought to be as Christians. It's real easy to fall into those categories for any of us. It is for me. And yet, here in 1 Corinthians 11, we see the directive to examine yourselves. That's in verse 28. Examine yourselves and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. See, that's a directive that we're all given. But what is the second directive? What is also noted here? The second thing that I want to point out here is in verse 29. It's discerning the body of the Lord. See, not only are we to examine ourselves, but we are to, and in this case, he was telling them, the people there in Corinth, you're not doing this well. You're not thinking about and clearly analyzing or discerning the body of the Lord. And so, since we've already covered examining ourselves, I want to cover today the topic of discerning the Lord's body. Because this is also a directive as we read. Just what does it mean? What does that mean? To discern. That's the way the King James, that's the way the New King James, that's the way the New Revised Standard that I normally use. That's what it says. It says discerning the Lord's body. Actually, the New King James says discerning the Lord's body.

In verse 29, all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves. I know the New King James is a little bit different, but it says essentially that same thing. And so, it tells us, even as it goes on, in verse 30, because these people in Corinth, in the church there, were not properly discerning the Lord's body. It says in verse 30, for this reason, many of you are weak and ill and some have died.

And so he says in verse 31, judge yourself. Examine yourself. Consider yourself. And so we mentioned that last week, and that is what we are to be doing. But we also want to be thinking about what it means to discern the Lord's body. And I would say that that's really an important topic for us to consider at this time. And I'll just offer a few things that might be of interest to all of us as we think about, well, what does it mean?

Why does God tell me to discern the Lord's body? I think we ought to consider, could that actually give meaning? Because it seems to be tied together with weakness and sickness and even dying. Could discerning the Lord's body give meaning to the suffering and the pain that we may go through as we wait for God to heal us? Could that be tied together? I'm just going to mention these things. How could discerning the Lord's body improve our worship of God and our respect for the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ?

How could that be a benefit to us? And could it actually, if we more clearly, more keenly discern the Lord's body, could that key element help us in our victory over sin? Could that actually be the case?

Could that actually help motivate us to obey and honor God and actually turn away from the temptation that we see so easily surrounds us? I'll ask all of these things, and perhaps all of these elements ought to be considered as we approach this Passover. But as we read here in 1 Corinthians 11, this section from verse 27 on down to verse 32 is a very important section to think about. Because it encourages us to be able to be properly prepared. It's not that we can't be prepared.

We can be prepared. We are being prepared as we examine ourselves and as we grow in understanding what discerning the Lord's body actually means. So I'd like to mention three things that I believe that there certainly is. You might be able to think of others, but whenever you think of discerning the body or discerning the Lord's body, what does that mean to you? How do you think about that whenever you are considering what Paul is talking about, about taking the bread and taking the wine, as he says Jesus told us to do?

What does it mean to discern the body of the Lord? Well, first of all, and the first thing that I would think that we would all consider is certainly to be thankful for the complete sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ. See, that would be the first thing that we would certainly think of, to be thankful for the shed blood. Now, I know that's not directly talking about what Jesus gave as an emblem for his body, but clearly the entirety of his life, the entirety of his submission to God and his desire to honor and to respect the plan of God, and actually to set in place the sacrifice that is going to enable you and me to be a part of the divine family of God.

See, to be thankful for that sacrifice, to be thankful for his blood that was shed, I think that would certainly be a part of discerning the Lord's body. It would be maybe not as direct as some of the other things that we'll mention, but it clearly has to be one that we can grow in our appreciation for.

We can grow in our desire to honor God with thanking him for the shed blood of our Savior. If we go to 1 Peter 1, there are numerous verses, of course, that you could tie together with this thought. But in 1 Peter 1, you find Peter actually writing about a great deal, because he was writing to the church in general. He was writing actually a little bit later in history than some of the things we read from what Paul was writing.

He's writing to the church in general, and he's mentioning some specific things about being the people of God and being a special people of God. What it was to be Christian. But here in 1 Peter 1, he says in verse 18, You know that you were ransom from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors. See, all of us have been bought with a price.

All of us have been thankfully granted the mercy from God and the coverage that comes from the blood of Christ to be ransomed and to be redeemed from our sins. To know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors. We were ransom not with perishable things like silver or gold, but in verse 19, with the precious blood of the Lamb. The precious blood of Jesus Christ like that of a Lamb without defect or blemish.

And he was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. And through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and who gave him glory so that your faith and your hope are set on God. See, why is it that we can look toward the world tomorrow? Why is it that we look toward eternal life? Why is it that we look forward to what God is going to do beyond this physical life that we have right now?

Why is it that we look toward that in hope? We look toward that in faith? Well, it's because of Jesus Christ. It's because of the precious blood that was shed for us. Now, we can go through the accounts in Matthew and Mark and Luke and even John. Each one of them give an account of Jesus being crucified, him being flogged and beaten, and ultimately then crucified and put to death. And we should read through some of those, at least one of those, I would say, before the Passover.

We should rehearse those things in our mind to remind ourselves of what type of sacrifice was being given. But here in 1 Peter, it tells us that we've been ransomed, we've been redeemed by very, very precious blood. It doesn't take us, it doesn't take me, at least, very much to bleed. My blood's pretty thin. I usually take aspirin regularly. So, any time I get any kind of little nick or... Usually, I don't even know it. I've hit my hand on something I bleed real easy.

And every time I see my blood, I think about that. That's what God says He's given us. He's not only breathed into us the breath of life, but He says our lives are in our blood. And once that blood is gone, then we're dead. But thankfully, the blood that is able to redeem us, the blood that is able to cover our sins is the blood of Jesus. And as it says here in verse 19, a very precious blood. You could say it's far more precious. It's certainly far more valuable than any of our blood, because it was blood that Jesus shed for everyone.

He did that so that all of us would be able to be forgiven. And back in Isaiah 53, you see here in Isaiah 53, the account that Isaiah was inspired to write about what the Son of God would go through and how it is. It doesn't detail everything about the crucifixion in this particular account, but in the latter part of Isaiah 52, it starts talking about My servant in verse 13.

And then on down through the remainder of Isaiah 53, it's talking about Jesus as He would come to the earth and the things that He would go through and what it is that He would endure and how it is that He would not come. So He would not come as the Jews of His day wanted. He would not come even as His disciples might have thought, because even though they had been drawn to Jesus, they weren't exactly sure what He was going to do.

And yet He was here 2000 years ago. He was here in order to serve a much deeper purpose, a greater purpose than simply to take over the world. He had told Pilate, yes, I'm a king, and yet My kingdom is not yet to be set up. I'm announcing that kingdom. It's going to come. And people are actually going to be prepared for that kingdom before it arrives. But He says right now, I'm here as a suffering servant. I'm here to set the perfect example. I'm here to allow My blood to be shed so people could be forgiven. Starting in verse 10 here of Isaiah 53, it says, It was the will of God to crush Him with pain. When you make His life an offering for sin, He shall see His offspring and shall prolong His days. Through Him the will of the Lord shall prosper. And out of His anguish in verse 11, He shall see light. See, beyond the fact that He was going to go through and endure an excruciating death, He would be resurrected from the dead. He would find satisfaction through His knowledge. The righteous one, My servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. See, what chance do I have to be righteous on My own? You say, zero. I cannot be righteous on My own. But He tells us here, He can make many people righteous. And He did so through His sacrifice. Talking about the servant of the Lord will make many righteous, and He will bear their iniquities. And therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great. He shall divide the spoiled with the strong, because He poured out Himself to death. He was numbered with the transgressors, and yet He bore the sin of many, and He made intercession for the transgressors. See, these statements, as we read them, we realize they're connected to Jesus Christ and His sacrifice, but we should be discerning the Lord's body as we read these. Thinking about how it was, what it was He was willing to go through, and even what it was that the Father was willing to go through, because I'm sure it was painful to watch. Painful to watch what He knew needed to happen was certainly painful, in that He had a great deal of love for Jesus Christ. But thankfully, what we see here in verse 11 and 12 is that He was willing to bear our iniquity. He was willing to bear my iniquities in His own life, in His own body, in His own blood, as He allowed it to be shed. I'd like for us to look back here in Luke 7, because I was thinking about this in connection with this. See, we know that Jesus gave His life, He gave His blood to cover our sins. But see, in many ways, there's a lot that we have to see about ourselves. We have to see about ourselves and part of why we were asked to examine ourselves, as I said, examine and then discern the body, discern what it is that has been made available to us. Here in Luke 7, you've got a, in the latter part of this chapter, from verse 36 on down to the end, you have a somewhat long section that I'm not going to read all of. But it's talking about Jesus going to a Pharisee's house. And what I want to point out is, as Jesus came, let's see, starting in verse 40, Jesus spoke to Simon, the Pharisee, that he had been at his home and was going to eat. He said, Simon, I've got something to say to you.

And Simon said, well, teacher, go ahead and speak. And Jesus said in verse 41, this is actually after the incident, and I'm not even reading it here in verse 37 and verse 38, because almost a scandalous thing had happened. A woman who was a known sinner, apparently, from what is said here, who has many sins, has come in and started to wash the feet of Jesus.

A very noble thing, as we're going to find out. And yet, what I want to point out here is, as Jesus mentions this parable in verse 41, a certain creditor had two debtors, one owed 500, the other 50, and when they couldn't pay, he canceled both of them.

Who do you think would love him more? And Simon said in verse 43, well, I suppose the one with whom he canceled the greater debt, and Jesus said, you have judged correctly. And so turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house, and you gave me no water for my feet. Simon had neglected something that was a relatively common practice at the time, at least to provide water. He didn't necessarily always watch the feet of others, but at least provide water, and yet he says, this woman has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair.

And you gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she's not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, and hence she has shown great love. She has expressed tremendous love toward me, the individual who was able to in many ways heal her and all of humanity of the tragic lives that they have lived. And he goes on to say, I tell you, in verse 47, Her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, hence she has shown great love, one to whom little is forgiven, that individual loves little.

See, Jesus was making a point that this woman, who had acknowledged who he was, who had acknowledged the value of what he had come to the earth to achieve, she acknowledged that he was the Son of God. She acknowledged that he was here, and she had faith that says, in verse 50, it says, Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. This is what Jesus told this woman. Now, what I want to point out is, Simon did not see his sins. He did not look at them. He did not recognize them.

He was a complete blank, as were many of the Pharisees. You know, they weren't acknowledging who Jesus was. They weren't accepting and receiving him and wanting him to thrive. They weren't at all. See, what Jesus is pointing out in this example is that the woman saw her sins. And even though, as he admitted, they were many, who's not going to fall into that category? Many sins. But he says, as she has recognized those sins, as she realizes how important it is that she acknowledges her need for help. As she shows love for the one who was able to cure her illnesses, her diseases, her sins, she was the one that was shown to be much more in favor with God than this Pharisee was in this example.

And so I point this out as we think about being thankful for the shed blood of our Savior, for the remission of our sins. We have to have a recognition of our sins. And we have to have faith toward God in order to receive the benefit, in order to look toward salvation. We have to do that. That's got to be a part of our discerning the Lord's body. And again, as we've done this year after year, and as some of you I know have done it for 50 years, it can never get too old.

It should actually become more acutely apparent to us how much we need Jesus Christ, how much we need His sacrifice, how much we need to discern His body. So that's the first thing I want to mention. The second thing regarding discerning the body, as we read back there in 1 Corinthians 11, we need to appreciate that Jesus' physical body was broken for us. It was broken for me. Not only was His blood shed, but His physical body was broken. Here in 1 Peter 2, and again, this is out of the same section that I was saying, Peter is writing about a number of things that are so very applicable to our need to be close to God and close to Jesus Christ, especially as we approach the time of the Passover.

Here in 1 Peter 2, it says in verse 21, He's talking about how it is that different people should live as servants of God, and actually He's talking about Christ's example of suffering. But here in verse 21, it says, For to you, or to this, you have been called. And so again, saying that in general to all the people who have been drawn into the body of Christ, all who feel an identity with God the Father and with Jesus Christ and His mercy toward us, this is what you've been called to because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you should follow in His steps.

This is really telling us we're not going to avoid all suffering. We're not going to avoid certain difficult and probably miserable times in our lives. He said Jesus went through a great deal of suffering. He goes ahead to describe this in verse 22. He committed no sin and no deceit was found in His mouth. I'm sure when Jesus was approaching the time as He was going to be beaten and flogged and ultimately then cruelly crucified, He was tired. He probably was hungry. He probably, I don't know, He wouldn't have been angry in a wrong sense at all. He may have been a little bit upset over what was happening. It says, even as He talks about the sacrifice, is there any way we can do this at any other way? He certainly was lonely in that all His disciples were going to flee. They were all going to turn. He wasn't lonely in that He always knew the Father was there in order to sustain Him and help Him. But it says, whenever He was going through some of the deepest suffering that He would go through, He committed no sin and He didn't say the wrong thing. No deceit was found in His mouth. No guile. No cursing. No wrong reaction in any way. And it says in verse 23, when He was abused, He did not return abuse. And when He suffered, He not threatened, but He simply entrusted Himself to the One who judges justly or righteously. So that's the example. That's what He tells us that not only did He do, but as we discern the Lord's body, as we think about the suffering that He endured, that we in a sense learn to entrust ourselves to the One who judges righteously. It says in verse 24, He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree or cross so that free from sin, we might live for righteousness by His stripes, by His wounds or bruises. However that's translated in the translation you're using, it says you have been healed. For it says you've gone astray like sheep, but now you've returned to the shepherd and guardian of your soul. There's got to be a connection here to discerning the body of Christ, thinking about what it was that He endured, thinking about what it was that He suffered, and realizing that He didn't just suffer so that we would never suffer. I don't think that's the connotation. I think He suffered, and we often follow in His footsteps. We often suffer as well. And so I think that's good for us to think about. You see here in Matthew 8, the other reference that this section out of Isaiah is quoted in the New Testament here in Matthew 8.

You see in verse 14 that Jesus entered Peter's house, and His mother-in-law had a fever. And it says in verse 15, He touched her hand, and the fever was immediately gone, and then she began to serve them. And so obviously this was a divine healing. And that evening they brought to Him many who were possessed with demons. He cast out the demons, the spirits with the Word, and He cured everyone who was sick. And so clearly being around Jesus was a very good thing. Being around, being aware of who He was, being in His presence brought tremendous blessing. But Matthew follows up with verse 17 where He says, This was to fulfill what had been spoken through Isaiah the prophet, where it says, He took our infirmities and He bore our diseases.

Again, as we discern the body of Christ, as we discern what He went through, what He suffered, and how He extends comfort and care and relief to us, there's got to be a connection there. We could go back to Isaiah 53, and we read part of this, the latter part of this, but we can read the little earlier sections here.

See Matthew, or excuse me, Isaiah 53, starting in verse 3, again talking about Jesus, He was despised and rejected by others. He was a man of suffering. He was acquainted with infirmity. And as one from whom others hid their face, He was despised, and we held Him of no account. See, Jesus was not proclaimed as the Lord of life. He was not proclaimed as the King of kings. Not at the time when He came 2,000 years ago.

He came as His suffering servant. He came to offer Himself as a sacrifice for those who need Him. For those who see that their sins need to be covered, and who see that they need Him even as they might be physically suffering as well. It goes on in verse 4, it says, Surely He has borne our infirmity, surely He has carried our diseases, and yet we accounted Him stricken and struck down by God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, and He was crushed for our iniquity. And upon Him was the punishment that made us whole, and by His bruises we are healed.

See, those are the type of statements that we read in Matthew, and that we read also in the book of Peter, because this is exactly how it is described. Verse 6, all we like sheep have gone astray, we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth like a lamb, that has led to the slaughter like a sheep, that before it shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. See, this was what was predicted. This was what Jesus had inspired to be written by Isaiah, about what He would fulfill whenever He came to the earth.

And not only would He, as we read later in this chapter, give His blood for forgiveness of sin, but that He would also give His body, that He would suffer, that He would endure for us, so that He is able to provide healing. He's able to provide healing. He's clearly able to do that. I think many of you would be able to attest to the fact that He has provided healing in your life, but in many ways He's also in need of providing you comfort, and courage, and power, and relief, even when you may suffer as He did.

See, we would, of course, always wonderfully want Christ to heal us immediately. We would like for Don not to have a cast on her arm. And I know Denise is doing well with her knee, and that's great. I'm sure it still hurts a little, and I know it did hurt some quite a bit after she had it repaired here several weeks ago. I know my wife is still suffering from an infection that we're trying.

We're waiting for that to be resolved. And yet it isn't completely resolved yet. So is there value? Is there benefit in suffering? Is that something that we simply often endure? And yet we endure in hope. We endure anticipating healing, anticipating comfort, anticipating help. I was looking at the account here in Matthew 8. I know we were there earlier. But in Matthew 8 and verse 1, it says, Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed Him. And there was a leper who came to Him and helped before Him, saying, Lord, if You choose, if You will, You can make me clean.

Now, sometimes I think I've read this and thought, is that talking about the will of God and is it always talking about God immediately healing us? Well, clearly that isn't the case. That doesn't happen. It can happen, but it doesn't happen. Certainly near as often as we would like. But what He told Him, this leper told Jesus, as He came in contact with the one who could heal Him, He said, if You choose, if it is Your will, then You can make me clean. And of course, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched Him in verse 3 and said, I will.

It is My will. It is My choice to intervene and heal You right now. It is My will be made clean. And immediately His leprosy was cleansed. And whenever you read that and you see, well, that obviously is miraculous intervention by God, what it is pointing out is that we are always, whenever we are asking God for help, and we're appealing to God to decrease our misery, to lessen our suffering, to provide healing, because of course none of us like to hurt.

Whenever we do that, we're always subject to the will of God in our appeals for help. See, He provides that as He sees fit. In this case, He provided it immediately. He provided it for a leper that was coming to Him and saying, I believe you can do this and I know you're able to provide this. And yet, whenever we receive that merciful healing from God, we have to simply say that all we can do is praise God for God providing that relief, or providing that comfort, or even giving us the hope that that's going to happen, because that is a big part of what God is doing with us.

So we are always subject to the will of God as we appeal to God for His intervention and healing and help.

I was struck by one of the notes that Pat has received. She's received a number of notes over the last few weeks. But I know one woman who wrote to her, and again, often we don't always know who many of the people are who may write to us, and express concern or interest in someone being sick and say that they're praying for you and they want you to be healed.

But this woman was obviously... she had expressed a certain amount of discouragement, and she said she knew it was easy to be discouraged, and knew that if you go on very long, you can get discouraged. And that certainly is the case, and that is the case, perhaps, with all of us, if things endure for a while. If we are required to suffer for a while, or even a longer period of time than we would ever imagine. But this woman expressed a thought that I think is really valuable, because often, as we're praying for God to heal us, we absolutely know He's able to do that. I can read, you know, where Jesus healed the sick, where He touched people and they were immediately well.

I believe that He can do that.

But I also know that He's working in my life and in your life to achieve something even greater than health or happiness. That's what this lady expressed. She said, God is more interested in making... She was talking of herself making me holy than just healing me or making me happy. God is interested in causing the divine nature to grow in us, as Jesus exemplified that in His physical life, even when He suffered. Now, we know He suffered right at the end of His life. I'm sure He had a certain level of suffering just listening to the disciples in their pig-headed, you know, unthinking. I mean, what did He think whenever they were calling down lightning? Should we call down lightning from heaven and squash these folks? You know, He had to tell them, no, that's not what we're here for. That's not what we're planning to do.

Or, you know, when they wanted to do something just completely ridiculous, or they wouldn't... Do you think He was ever exasperated whenever He was talking to them and telling them, and how many different times did He have to tell them, I'm going to be killed? I'm going to be gone? I'm not going to be... He had to tell them over and over and over that that was going to happen. And He also dealt with them as they would go from one situation to the next, and then, of course, even as He was teaching about the Kingdom of God, they're arguing, oh, who's going to be in charge? Who gets the power? That was what they were complaining about. That was what was on their mind. They were yet to grow in an understanding of who He was, what He was doing, what He wants of us, what He will want of people down through the next 2,000 years, and even into the world to come. See, surely Jesus suffered more than simply right at the end of His life. He suffered maybe just, in a sense, kind of exasperation with some of the people that He worked with. And yet, God is more interested in making us holy than simply making us healthy or happy.

He is causing His nature to grow in us. And often, when we experience delay, that delay is not the word we like to hear, especially when we hurt, and especially when we want to receive help. Sometimes it just takes a while. Sometimes it takes a while. But when we experience loneliness or discouragement or despair or even suffer, the fact is, we believe in God's ability to heal us, because we believe what the Word of God says, and how that there's a connection in whatever way it is.

And I'm not here to tell you that I know all about it, but I know that it says that there's a connection and that there's a hope and that there's an encouragement that is made available to us through discerning the body of the Lord. That's something that all of us can think about and contemplate and ask God to show us. But we believe in God's ability to perform miracles. We believe in His ability to heal us. We believe the Word of God that Jesus healed the sick that He had brought to Him. I mean, they fought to Him because clearly He was able to help. And yet, as we are in the process of growing in the divine nature, and as we are year to year going through a process of celebrating the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, and then later the Feast of Tabernacles, and the entirety of the Holy Days, throughout the year, we are learning more about His divine purpose for our lives.

And we believe in His ability, but we wait. We wait for His mercy and for His healing. Whenever He wills, whenever He says it's over, then He'll heal. He'll provide. But that, of course, is something we often want much quicker. So that's the second point that I want to make. The last one in discerning the Lord's body is in connection with the fact that the Lord's body is the Church of God, as I know all of us know. You see a description of the body of the Lord as you read about the Church and the many different members.

Since Paul is talking about this in 1 Corinthians 11, he's mentioning this. And in chapter 12, he goes ahead to talk about, you know, what is it that you need to know if you're going to discern the body of the Lord? Yes, that's connected with Jesus. Yes, it's connected with His blood and with His body that would be given for us.

But I think it's also connected. If I discern the body of the Lord, well, the body of the Lord takes on another dimension when you think of it as the Church of God. When you think of it as all of us, as it says in verse 12 here, 1 Corinthians 12, verse 12, just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, though many are one, so it is with Christ. So it is with the body of Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jew or Gentile, slave or free, we are all made to drink of one Spirit.

And indeed, the body does not consist of one member but many. See, the body of Christ, and we see that describing the Church of God, it's comprised of many members. See, if we're going to discern the body of Christ, then we're going to have to have love for one another. We're going to have to have the love of God for the body of Christ. You see a description here, of course, and I'm not going to read all of this for the sake of time, but it says in verse 18, But as it is, God has arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as He chose.

God has not set up the body, He's not set up the Church in the way that He didn't call me. He didn't ask me anything about it at all, and He didn't call any of us. He sets those things up as He sees fit. He says, if all were the same member, then where would the body be? As it is, in verse 20, there are many members, and yet one body. And the eye, a given member cannot say to the hand, another member, I don't have any need of you.

I don't care about you. I'm not interested in what you do. I'm only interested in what I do. See, the body can't function that way. See, and this is part of discerning the body. On the contrary, in verse 22, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. And those members of the body that we think less honorable are, we clog with greater honor. And our less respectable members are treated with greater respect, whereas our more respectable members do not need this.

But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no division, that there may be a unity, that there may be a harmony, that there may be a love and care for one another, a respect for one another, an appreciation for one another, an appreciation for what someone else provides. He goes on to say that there may be no division within the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, say, why are we concerned about others who need our prayers? Why are we concerned about others that we become aware of that are sicker in need?

Well, it's because it tells us that we have to be concerned about the body. If one member suffers and all suffer together with it, if one member is honored, then everyone should rejoice. So that's the type of discerning the body that is actually going to express what Jesus told His disciples in John 13. John 13 is an amazing chapter. Of course, it records the foot-washing service and many, many lessons that we learn from respecting those words and following what Jesus said to do. But you see later in John 13 that He says, as My disciples, as My people, as people who will make up the body, and of course it was at that point kind of yet to be, because the day of Pentecost was yet to come, and Jesus was actually yet to be crucified.

But He says, you're going to be identified as My body. You're going to be identified as a Church of God if you love one another. If you have a tremendous love for the brethren, if you have a love for one another, then we are, in essence, discerning the Lord's body. So there may be many others. These are ones that I've thought of as I've thought about, what does it mean to discern the body of the Lord? There are several areas that we can think of.

And perhaps, again, you can think of others. But as we do this, as we do what God tells us to do, as we examine ourselves, as we discern the body, as we analyze the body, as we analyze our part in the body, as we analyze our love for the body, could that give greater meaning to our suffering and pain while we await healing? I think the answer would have to be yes.

It could. It might very well benefit us. Could it improve our worship of God and our respect for the sacrifice Jesus gave? Well, I surely would hope that would be the case. And could this key element help us in our victory over sin motivate us to obey God and not be sinning and again and again and again requiring the blood of the sacrifice? I think certainly the answer to that could be yes, and we'll cover more on that as we go into the days of Unleavened Bread.

But I hope, as we go over this, that this can also be a part of your preparation, a part of your not only examining yourself, but as you discern the Lord's body. As you do that in preparation for this Passover, I ask that we all, as we come together and take the Passover, we do that properly discerning the body of the Lord.