LIFE IN THE BODY

Birth. Our starting point is spiritual birth. Jesus told Nicodemus, "You must be born again." John 3:7. No one is part of the Body until he or she is personally born again. We are born into the Body of Christ. Paul described this as a spiritual baptism in 1 Corinthians 12:13, "By one Spirit we were all baptized into one body". From that beginning point, each believer needs to grow to become a properly functioning part of the Body ... fitting in ... serving and being served.

Baptism. The outer demonstration of our inner spiritual baptism is water baptism. Jesus was baptized, Matthew 3:13-17. Every believer should be baptized. The Great Commission includes the commandment for "baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Matthew 28:19. Water baptism is a statement of our identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection, Romans 6:1-7. A simple application of this Biblical commandment is baptism by immersion after spiritual rebirth.

Early Church Examples. The early church gave good examples to us ... examples of what our collective lives should include.

Gathering together, Acts 2:1.

Being taught, Acts 2:41.

Fellowship, Acts 2:41.

Breaking bread (the Lord's Supper), Acts 2:41.

Praying together, Acts 2:41.

Sharing their material resources, Acts 2:44-45.

Eating meals together, Acts 2:46.

Praising God, Acts 2:47.

Growing in numbers, Acts 2:47.

Worship. Worship should be an integral part of our individual and collective lives as believers. The men and women of the Old and New Testaments worshipped God in many different places and situations. Worship can be in spoken word or song. Jesus said, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." John 4:24.

Communion. The example and teaching of Christ at the Last Supper, and Paul's explanation of them, established communion as a special time of remembrance when we gather together as believers. When we eat the bread and drink the cup, we look back at Christ's sacrifice of His body and at His shed blood. We commemorate the great price He paid for us. We also should look inside ourselves in self-examination ... and we should look forward to the day when we will share this meal with Jesus in His coming kingdom, Matthew 26:26-30, Mark 14:22-26, Luke 22:14-20, and 1 Corinthians 11:23-24.

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Disciplemaking 1, copyright 2003, is available free from www.MyDisciplemaker.org where you can study online or print free copies. You may copy this course, any any part of it, for free or at-cost distribution ... without change to the content ... and with this copyright policy attached. Published by www.ActsOneEight.org. Bible Quotations are from the NASB unless noted.