6. The Sanctifying Body of Christ – Paul M. Williams

Acts 20:33-35 Does God bless His people financially?  ABSOLUTELY!!  But the immediate question that must arise following this answer is What for?  Why does God bless His people financially?  So that we might be a giving people!!  This attitude ought to be at the heart of our giving in the Church. 

Ephesians 5:19-21 So much of what is deemed as corporate worship today is so bereft of any substance!  Could it be that we lack so much zeal and passion in our worship because our theology is so meagre?  In other words, our view of God is so pathetically small?  Why worship God?  BECAUSE HE IS WORTHY!!!  Is that not a good place to start?  May God minister to you through this ninth sermon part in a series looking at the Church.

This sermon was preached at the West Midlands Messianic Testimony Rally 2025.  A look at the godly King Jehoshaphat with lessons applied.  https://www.messianictestimony.com/      

Acts 2:42 If one takes a cursory look through the first few chapters of the Book of Acts, one will see that prayer permeates its pages.  The Church of Jesus Christ was birthed in prayer and sustained in prayer!!  She was at her most radiant when she was found on bended knee.  She was never more clothed in grace than when she talked with her God!!!  That first Church of Pentecost Jerusalem knew something of the power of prayer that the Church today knows nothing of!!  This sermon is a call for the Church of Jesus Christ to return to the place of prayer and supplication. 

1 Chronicles 4:9-10 Dr Egerton shares from his heart on the prayer of Jabez.  

Acts 2:42 As well as the Lord’s Supper being a place of tremendous remembrance, it is also a place of immense self-examination.  In this teaching part, we rediscover the importance of the Lord’s Supper and refute in part the false doctrine of transubstantiation. 

Hebrews 10:23-25 So many of the New Testament exhortations calling the child of God to humility and love, forbearance and kindness, forgiveness and patience can only be carried out if one is found in fellowship as part of a local assembly. God has designed the Church and placed you as a member to perfect you in sanctification. As the saying goes, iron sharpens iron, and friction, when brought to the cross, begets holiness! 

Acts 2:42 The mindset of so many when coming to the house of God is WHAT AM I GOING TO GET OUT OF IT, when instead the mindset ought to be, WHAT ARE OTHERS GOING TO GET OUT OF ME!!  That’s a different proposition altogether, and these sentiments lie at the root of true Christian fellowship!!  The Greek word for “fellowship” is the Word KOINONIA.  Being translated, it means a common sharing together/communion.  Koinonia is not one-way traffic; it involves mutual participation between two or more parties.  One can think of Koinonia as a bring and share!!  I’ll bring the sandwiches and you bring the salad, I’ll bring the rice and you bring the meat; I’ll bring the drinks and you bring the cups!!  When we gather as the Body of Christ, it ought to resemble a picnic, and I don’t just mean food.  I mean a sharing of one's life!!  Let us then see what Koinonia looked like in the first Church. 

Acts 2:42 Mention the word doctrine today in the vast majority of congregations up and down the length of this nation, and you will be met with suspicion on the one hand and scorn on the other. From my observations, the appetite of so many within the professing Church towards doctrine is like that of children towards sprouts!  Mom and Dad know that they’re good for their little darlings, but their little darlings have no stomach for them!  Give us baked beans, fries, tomato ketchup and pizza, anything so long as it is not green!!  The Apostle Paul warned some 2000 years ago that this would become the heart’s attitude of God’s people towards sound doctrine. In this fourth sermon part, we examine the place of doctrine in the Church. 

Ephesians 4:1-6 Having laid the foundation for the unity of the Church in the previous sermon, we focus in this sermon on the functional unity of the Body.  Why so much division in the Body of Christ?  Why so much discord?  At the heart of the problem lies the root sin of pride.