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The more that you learn about God the more that you will realize that everything that God has ever done or said in His Word is because of the Body of Christ. God's focus is in reaching a lost and sinful world and the Body of Christ is His only chosen tool with which to do so. Everyone of us have heard about the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, but in this sermon let me reveal to you even more of the extensive plan of God for the Body of Christ.

God has no other physical body other than the Body of Christ. God is by nature a Spirit and spirits are not made up of physical bodies. A spirit can make itself visible in any form that it chooses including the form of a man. When a spirit does this it is called a "theophany." A theophany is when a spirit makes itself appear to be human but is actually not. If an angel appears unto you, then the easiest way to make itself recognizable to you would to be to appear in the form of a man. If a three-headed, green blob with a mouth and no hands and no feet appeared unto you with a message from God, you probably wouldn't stay around long enough to listen, right? So most spirits, including God, use theophanies to interact with humans. If an angel were to appear to you in the form of a man and you were to get him to lay down on a surgical table and take a scalpel and try to cut him open, you would quickly find that there was nothing physical there. The spirit appeared to be human, but in actuality it does not have flesh and blood. For something to have flesh and bones it must be conceived and born of a woman. That is why when the one, true God of the universe who is a Spirit decided that He wanted to pay the ultimate blood sacrifice to allow men and women to have a relationship with Him again, He had to come to earth and be born of a woman. The Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and she conceived. Why did God have to be born of a woman? It was the only way that a Spirit being could have blood to shed for our sins.

The key phrase for this sermon is "his only begotten Son." "Begotten" means to have been conceived and born. Every time you see the phrase "the Son" it refers to the flesh that was born of Mary. And it is important to understand that the flesh of Jesus Christ, "the Son," is the only fleshly body that God ever became. That is why Jesus could make such statements as "I and my Father are one," and "when you have seen me you have seen the Father," and "I am he." As I Timothy 3:16 says: "God was manifest (revealed, made visible) in the flesh. That's how come Isaiah 9:6 states that the "son" that was to be born would be the "Everlasting Father, the Mighty God." I particularly like the way that Paul put it:

When you see Jesus Christ you are seeing the mighty plan of God to become flesh and die for you and me! Everything that God is and was, was in Jesus Christ. And when you get to heaven, the only image of God that you will ever see is the glorified body of Jesus Christ. Some people get thrown off by the figures of speech "right hand of God." But we can realize that these are simply figures of speech just as "feathers of God" and "wings of God." The one God of the Old Testament only has one physical body that was ever born to woman, the body of Jesus Christ. He is the ONLY begotten Son of God!

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Keeping this in mind, that God only has one physical body, then we can read with interest the creation of Adam in the garden of Eden. Adam was the only living thing that was created in the "image of God." Think about that. If God is a Spirit, then what "image" was man created after the likeness of? Man was created after the image of the only begotten, Jesus Christ. Notice the following scriptures:

Adam was created in the image of Jesus Christ. Like Jesus Christ, Adam was created without sin. We've already talked about how that God became flesh because it was the only way for a Spirit being to have blood to shed to cover our sins, but who was it that made the rule in the first place that it took BLOOD to cover sins? God, Himself, made that rule! What are you trying to say preacher? Here it is:

God created man so that He could have a relationship with a being that was not a robot so God had to give man the choice to choose between good and evil. That is why the forbidden fruit was placed in the garden, so man could choose to serve and love God because of his own choice. But get this: IN CASE MAN SINNED, GOD ALREADY HAD A PLAN IN PLACE TO REVEAL HIS GREAT LOVE AND MAKE THINGS RIGHT BETWEEN MAN AND HIM! Man was created in the image of Jesus Christ who would be born of woman and come and pay the awful price of sin in blood. God chose blood to cover sin so that He could reveal to you His great love for you. He wanted you to know that He loves you enough to do anything to provide a way for you to get past sin and get a relationship with Him!

God had and has a plan to reveal His love to the world. And that plan was to use the BODY OF CHRIST. Even as Adam was walking around in the garden, he was created in the image of the body of Christ. When he sinned, he ceased representing the Body of Christ for Jesus Christ never sinned. But God instituted His plan: He shed the blood of an innocent animal to cover the sin and the blood of that animal then represented the Body of Christ.

Turn with me to John chapter 1 and let's take a quick look at the plan of God in action:

The word for "Word" in the Greek is "logos" and it means "the thought, intent, and the plan." In the beginning was the plan that we've been talking about through which God was to reveal His great love. The plan was with God and the plan was God. You cannot, as some have tried to do, separate God from His plan and thoughts and make them a separate "god." Verse 2 states that this plan was in the beginning with God. All things were made according to this plan! That plan was the "body of Christ."

We can see the "body of Christ" in every dispensation before Calvary. God gave Noah two classes of animals, clean and unclean, and the 7th clean animal was to be offered up as a blood sacrifice unto God. That "clean" animal represented the sacrifice that the pure and sinless Jesus Christ would one day give on Calvary. The seventh animal represented the "body of Christ."

When God came to talk to Abraham, He had to become a theophany because He didn't have an actual body yet, but the promise that He made to Abraham was about a Messiah to come! The promises represented the Body of Christ. When the call came that day for Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, on the altar, Abraham unknowingly identified what he was doing when he told his son "God will provide Himself a sacrifice." The events of that day represented the Body of Christ.

God delivered Moses and the Israelites through the killing and application of the Passover Lamb. That Lamb in every way represented the Body of Christ. God gave plans for a tabernacle with a High Priest and those plans in every way represented the Body of Christ. Jesus was the blood sacrifice (brazen altar). He came so that we could be washed (brazen laver) and would not die. Jesus said that He was the light of the world (golden candlestick), and that He was the bread of heaven (table of shewbread). His flesh was represented by the huge curtain (veil) that separated man from the presence of God, so much so that when Jesus Christ died, the curtain was ripped in two in the temple. The reason that man back then could not enter into the presence of God was because they were waiting for the veil (the body of Christ) to be torn (or crucified). We don't have time to go into it in this sermon, but every action and qualification and article of clothing of the High Priest represented the Body of Christ. The plan of God that was with Him in the beginning was being revealed unto man through the Body of Christ.

Now look down at verse 14 of John chapter 1:

The plan of God was made flesh! The Body of Christ was finally actually born of a woman and came to earth. And notice there's that phrase again: "only begotten of the Father." This flesh, this plan, was the only flesh that the Father would ever become through natural birth! For 3 and a half years the Body of Christ walked upon this earth and then He offered Himself as the ultimate blood sacrifice upon Calvary, and then.........the body of Christ ascended into heaven leaving His followers to wait upon the Holy Ghost! Now we have seen how that from the beginning, God has had a representative of the Body of Christ on the earth, and it is through this body that He has chosen to reach the world. With all of this in mind, go back up to verse 10 of John chapter 1:

Once Jesus Christ was rejected by the Jewish people (his own people), then He gave those who do receive Him the power to become the sons of God or to become the "Body of Christ!" Notice verse 13, this "Body of Christ" would not be born "of blood or of the will of flesh;" in other words, not by a natural birth resulting from the desires and will of man, but who would be "born of God." Keep in mind that in John chapter 3, Jesus told Nicodemus that "you must be born again of the water and the Spirit." It's a heavenly birth, a new beginning in the spirit when a person Repents of their sins, is baptized in the name of Jesus, and receives the precious Holy Ghost! You are being born again not of a natural birth, but of a spiritual birth. You are becoming the sons of God!

That's why Paul tells the church in Corinth: "you are the Body of Christ." If God has chosen by His divine plan to reveal His love to the world through the Body of Christ, then who is the Body of Christ now? Those who have been born again of the water and the Spirit. We are the Body of Christ!

Abraham had to talk with theophany of God because God did not have an actual human body! When Moses begged to see God, he had to settle for seeing the hinder parts of a theophany. But after the Day of Pentecost, I never find God appearing in a theophany again! Why? Because the Body of Christ has been revealed! If the world is going to see God's love and be reached with His awesome plan, it will have to be through you and me: We are the Body of Christ!

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Now let me preach to you and challenge you in the Holy Ghost.

There is only one begotten Son of God. God is not going to come down in human form and preach to this world. He is not going to come down and witness to your friends. He is not going to come back down and weep with a burden for a lost world again. We are now the Body of Christ in this world. If the world is going to be won, it will be through us.

The devil doesn't want you to realize who you are. That's why he attacks us with feelings of inferiority. That's why he wants you to believe that you have nothing to offer God or the world. Satan wants you to think that you have nothing to give. But of all the vessels and tools at His side, God chose you to be the Body of Christ! God chose you to be the one to hear this precious Jesus name, born-again message and to receive it. It was not an earthly birth. It was not a birth caused by the will of man. I couldn't give you this experience but it was a spiritual birth given by God. God has chosen you to be the Body of Christ for this area and this generation: don't listen to the lies of Satan, you do have something to give the world!

In Acts chapter 3 is the familiar story with which the Lord began to deal with me this week in prayer. Peter and John were fresh from the Holy Ghost experience. It hadn't been too long since Jesus had ascended into heaven leaving them to be the Body of Christ.

Peter and John were going in the early afternoon prayer. They passed a beggar who had laid DAILY at the gate of the temple. Jesus Christ had walked past this lame beggar countless times and yet had not healed him. The beggar asked for alms from Peter and John. The words of Peter in verse 6 stood out to me this week and have been resounding in my mind: "such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!" Peter realized that in himself and in his own power, he had absolutely nothing to give the man, but he also realized that as the Body of Christ, he had everything to give him! "Such as I have give I thee." I believe that Jesus had purposely not touched and healed this man so that Peter could be the Body of Christ to him!

God is not interested in what you have or what qualifications that you bring. He is only interested if you are willing to give of what you have. When we see areas of people's lives that need a miracle and a touch, then our natural response is to say, "I can't help them." No, not in yourself you can't, but you DO HAVE SOMETHING THAT IS WHAT THEY REALLY NEED! You have Jesus Christ living in you working through you. If Peter would have stopped with just "Silver and Gold have I none." Then the man would have died a lame beggar. But Peter didn't stop there. It's okay to realize that we do not have the answers for the world in our own mind or ability, but don't stop there. You also need to realize that you are the Body of Christ. If the awesome love of God and plan is to be revealed to them, if they are to have the miraculous hand of Jesus Christ in their life, then it will be through us, the Body of Christ!

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Paul used the analogy of the Body of Christ in our text. I would like to read the text in The Living Bible translation which is a paraphrase edition:

We have already established this, but let's move on to some particular points:

The devil likes to get us to think just because we don't have the prayer life of so and so, or the ability to preach like so and so, or because we are old, or because we are young, or whatever that we cannot contribute to the Body of Christ. But I'll join with Paul in reminding you that our bodies would not be very effective if it were made of only one part! Our differences actually are a plus because God has made us into individual parts of the body of Christ and "put each part just where he wants it." We need to pray less "God let me be like so and so" and more like "God place me exactly where I need to be and what I need to be doing for your perfect will!

You probably don't think of your small pinky toe as very important. But let it get a cut on it and all of a sudden the entire body is thinking about it! You probably don't go around thinking of your appendix every day and hour, but let it get infected...! No matter how small an insignificant we feel we are in the Body of Christ, we all play an important part in the normal function of the body. You may not be the eye or the mouth, but if you are the pinky, you are important in helping the eye and the mouth. We all have something to offer the world as the Body of Christ!

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We are the Body of Christ. Let me close by pointing out the following illustrations:

1. The Body of Christ never did divide in ministering to this world. The ear of Christ never tried to go to Galilee while the mouth got mad and stayed home. Jesus Christ was able to effectively turn His world upside down because His body was in complete unity in going about God's will. When people are insistent on doing their own thing and not submitting to God's Will for the church, they are removing themselves from the Body of Christ.

2. The real gift that the Body of Christ had to offer the world was the blood flowing through it's veins. But the blood did absolutely no good until the will of the flesh was conquered in the Garden of Gethsemane. We, as the body of Christ, need to reach this world with the blood of Jesus, but we will never be able to do so, until we die out to the will of our flesh that tries to stay alive.

3. The Body of Christ was hurt by enemies of God. It was crucified, it was persecuted, and it was whipped. Yet, the body never lashed back and indeed forgave those who were the persecutors. So it is with us. We must never allow persecution to cause us to stray from our original purpose: to reach the very ones that are hurting us with God's love. Jesus probably didn't win very many of the Jewish leaders and soldiers who hurt Him that day, but He did win many of the people who were watching His response of love and forgiveness. We must not lash back at our enemies and must be willing to forgive those who spitefully use us for the sake of those who are watching!

4. The Body of Christ was designed for a resurrection. Even if you feel like you are being crucified and killed by others, remember that if you stay with the body of Christ, give it a little bit of time and there will be a resurrection! When Jesus was resurrected, He manifested powers that He had not revealed before His death! God wants to give you a new anointing and power and that's why He allows you to go through persecution.

5. Joseph of Arimathaea "begged" for the body of Jesus from Pilate. Mark said that he "craved" the body of Jesus. When you are willing to die out to the flesh and it's desires. . . When you are willing to forgive those who spitefully reprove you and persecute you. . . When you are willing to sell out all to the plan of God, then you will create in others a desire, a "craving" to want what we have! The world wants someone who is different. They want something that is real. They want to see the plan of God revealed to them. They need the Body of Christ to realize who we are and stand up and "Such as we have" give to them! We are the Body of Christ for this hour!