Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode

There have always been many voices saying “This is the way to know God.” Today’s media explosion has created more voices and more confusion. Why then another? Our purpose is to share truth to help strengthen your relationship with God and with other believers in your locality.

Personal connection with other believers cannot be replaced by the mass media. It is much more satisfying to have a deep spiritual relationship with ten believers than to be in a crowd of ten thousand. Every individual is important to God, and His plan involves each one in a very real way. There are things that are important to God that can only take place in close personal relationships.

The goal of God is to build a family of His children together in love, walking in truth. Personal submission and obedience to Christ will bring conformity of each member to Christ, and a growing expression of the nature of God in a local gathering. The testimony going out to the world around will be as a “light set on a hill that cannot be hidden” and “the pillar and ground of the truth.”

Use the search box (upper right) to find topics of interest. View a full list of titles at http://www.ntchurchsource.com/podcast/.

  1. All Episodes
  2. 78 Discerning the Body of Christ

78 Discerning the Body of Christ

May 18, 2017

Episode 78 Discerning the Body of Christ


Paul said that if a person partakes of the Lord’s Table but does not discern the Lord’s body, he eats and drinks judgment to himself. What does it mean to discern the Lord’s body? What is the “Lord’s body”? A critical foundation truth pertaining to the purpose and working of God in our time is that we are charged with being an expression of the Body of Christ in our locality. This is a great privilege and at the same times a grave responsibility. God has chosen to work in and through a many-member body to express His life. “Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.” (1 Corinthians 12:27, NKJV) Partaking of the Lord’s Table together is a statement that we are in a right relationship with God and one another, and have accepted this responsibility before the Lord. To make the statement falsely invites the Lord’s judgment.


• The focus of a true expression of the Body of Christ is Christ Himself
o Christ must be the foundation (the work of God in the cross)
o Christ must be the life (the Holy Spirit indwelling each member)
o Christ must be the Head (each member submitted to the authority of Christ)
• The foundation of the body is the broken body and blood of Christ
o All have been brought into union with Christ by the Spirit (I Cor. 12:12-13)
o All have been called to participate in His suffering (rejection by the world)
o To lay down their own life and live His life for the purpose of God
• As a member of the Body, I have a responsibility to give and receive
o God places me in an expression of His body according to His wisdom and choice
o I am responsible to recognize God coming to me through other members
o I am responsible to care for other members according to the grace God has given me
• Not discerning the Body of Christ could include:
o Only seeing my salvation as an individual matter
o Only seeing a gathering of believers as a “meeting” or organization
o Holding myself aloof from close relationships
o Not desiring accountability
o Not submitting “one to another”
o Seeing myself as complete without the grace of others
• To partake of “one loaf” and “one cup” without the corresponding relationship with Christ and others invites God’s judgment (weakness, sickness, and even death)
• God brings discipline that we may not be condemned with the world
o Conviction of the Holy Spirit in a personal way
o Care coming through other members
o Grace of oversight
o Plurality of brothers to give strength to truth I need
o The final judgment of the church if necessary


• Additional resources at http://www.ntchurchsource.com/
• Theme song “Will Your Anchor Hold” sung by J. Ashley Milne
• Comments and questions welcome. Email David@AnchorOfTruth.com