Discerning the Body in these Last Days*

     In 1Corinthians 11, the apostle Paul warned believers to discern the Body of Christ. This is especially important in these last days.

    

     David wrote in Psalm 120, a Song of degrees (ascent, steps, going up, thoughts) about the conditions he was facing then that are still prevalent today: "In my distress I cried unto the LORD, and he heard me. Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips, and from deceitful tongue. My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war."

     Is the Body of Christ truly crying out to the LORD in these times of distress, when lies run rampant and war and violence prevail? Satan is the father of lies, whose first lie was, "Hath God said...?" Who are we listening to, and are we able to discern the truth from a lie? There are those who hate peace, not as man thinks of peace, but the peace of the LORD, which is a lasting peace.

     In the Book of Revelation, Christ sends a message to the "angel" (messenger, pastor) of the Church of Ephesus.  Ephesus was a capital city of a province in Asia, and the center of the worship of the false goddess Diana. A great deal of that city's wealth came from those who traveled to the temple of Diana which was located there. Within that setting, however, was a church of believers in Christ. In His message to this church, Jesus said to them: "I know thy works, and thy labour (intense and troubled toil, beating of the breast), and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars. And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent." (Rev. 2:1-6, excerpt). 

     The church at Ephesus continued to do works based on the principles of Christianity, not compromising truth and with steadfast perseverance. They tested and rejected false apostles while embracing the true apostles, like Paul, because they understood the importance to the church of a true apostle, whom God still appoints to the church today. However, this laboring and discerning church had lost the love they had had for Christ in the beginning. In another place, Paul writes for the believers not to be conformed to the world but rather transformed by the washing of the Word of God, in order to prove the will of God. The world does not take the church seriously because the believers in Christ are "playing" church. Are we sorrowful of heart at the wickedness around us because we are not living up to what Christ requires of us? Our first love created a zealousness for Christ and His salvation in us because we knew the truth. Is that first love still within us? Jesus called on the church of Ephesus to repent.

     The apostle Paul had written to the church at Ephesus some years earlier about very powerful, life-changing principles of faith in Christ. Reading from the Book of Ephesians, these are just some of the revelations that were given by Paul to this church at Ephesus:

Chapter 1 -

• Paul greets this church with grace and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ
• believers have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
• believers were predestined and chosen before the foundation of the world to be adopted as children of God
• this church of believers has redemption and forgiveness through Christ's blood and the riches of His grace
• God has made known to the church the mystery of His will, having given us wisdom and prudence from His abundance
• God's will is that all things in heaven and on earth would be gathered into one in Christ
• this church (and all believers) has obtained an inheritance and were sealed or guaranteed into this inheritance by the Holy Spirit
• God has given believers wisdom, revelation and the eyes of understanding to know the exceeding greatness of His power towards us
• Christ, whom God raised from the dead, is seated at God's right hand, having all power, dominion and might in this world and the world to come with all things placed under His feet
• Christ in His exalted position is the head over the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that fills all

Chapter 2 -

• the church of believers was once dead in sin and walked with the course of the world, under the spiritual powers of disobedience and were therefore destined to wrath, but now has been raised up with Christ and sit with Him in the heavenly places
• the church was thus saved by grace through faith as a gift from God and not by "deserving" works, so no man could boast that he had earned the righteousness of his salvation
• the church has been created by God in this way in Jesus Christ for pre-ordained good works and should therefore walk in them
• this church of believers were Gentiles in the flesh, separated from the people and promises of God, separated from Christ, but now have been brought near by His blood
• Christ is their/our peace and has made peace between the (outwardly) circumcised and uncircumcised, between the far off and the near, creating one new man, reconciling both to God by the cross
• through Christ the two who were separated have become one and have access to the Father by one Spirit
• this church is now part of the household of God which is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ being the chief corner stone, built together into this habitation of God through the Holy Spirit

Chapter 3 - 

• in other ages, the mystery of God was not made known, but now is revealed to the apostles and the prophets by the Holy Spirit
• the mystery is the fact that the Gentiles should become fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of the promise of Christ 
• Paul was chosen by God, even though he was the least of all the saints, and sent to preach among the Gentiles the riches of Christ
• this mystery spoken of above was hidden in God from the beginning of the world who created all things by Jesus Christ (see Jn. 1:1-4)
• the church is to make known to the spiritual and earthly principalities and powers this overcoming wisdom of God which He purposed in Jesus Christ
• Paul prays that this church is strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man and that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge so that the church may be filled with all the fulness of God
• the Lord is able to do exceedingly above all that the church might think or ask by the power that works in them/us

Chapter 4 - 

• Paul asks the church to walk worthy of the calling that he detailed above
• we are to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace in the same way that there is unity in every part of our faith: one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father
• Christ has given gifts to the body in the form of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers in order to perfect the body and equip it for the work of ministry. These gifts remain in the body of Christ until the believers come into the unity of the faith, perfected by the knowledge of the Son of God, into the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ
• the whole body is expected to become fitly joined together so that every part of it is supplying the whole in love
• we are to put off the old man and his manner of living and be renewed in the spirit of our mind, putting on the new man whom God created in righteousness and true holiness
• put away lying and speak truth
• put away former corrupt ways and let no corrupt communication come out of the mouth but only that which is good and ministers grace to the hearer
• do not grieve the Holy Spirit and adopt a lifestyle worthy of the grace and holiness that have been given to believers through Christ  

     There is so much darkness and unrighteousness in the world. Paul wrote to the Ephesian church and to all of us that we should not be like the world.  We have been separated from these things in Jesus Christ. The world is full of anger and division along all lines, including racial, cultural, and economic lines. The church should not be divided like this but has been called to the same unity that the Farther, Son and Spirit, and faith and baptism have together. The world is at war, but the church has been called to the peace of Jesus Christ, who reconciles and makes peace between the things of heaven and the things of earth. The world is pulled into faithlessness through lies, but the church should be an uncompromising bastion of truth. The world and parts of the church want to keep the separation between Jews and Gentiles, but Christ came to destroy that separation and to join the two as one new man into the same inheritance and promise of God. The world embraces a variety of religions including secularism, but the church has been called, not by religion, but by the gift of the grace of God, to be empowered through faith in Christ to do the works of Christ. The world wants to remain as strangers to God, but the believers of the church were not only known by God before the foundation of the world but predestined to receive His Son thereby remaining strangers to Him no more, having been adopted into God's heavenly family. Unless we believers can discern these powerful truths given to the church at Ephesus and to all of us, and unless we repent and return to our first love which is Jesus Christ and His salvation, we will remain as the world is and unable to perform the united works of the Body of Christ during the times of distress in these last days.

     *Based upon Dr. Kenneth E. Stevenson, Jr.'s 11/17/24 message to the church. If you would like to hear the complete message, you can find it on Dr. Stevenson's Facebook page. To contact or support this ministry, or to request prayer, you can write to PO Box 154221, Waco, TX, 76705. To find out more about the Shroud of Turin, and to receive a free e-book now available in several languages, go to http://www.theshroudofturin.org/freebook.