So one of the tv shows that Natalie and I have been watching lately is called Alone.  Have you seen this show?  It’s been on for several seasons, but Natalie and I are kind of late to the party. If you haven’t seen it, it’s basically a reality television show where 10 contestants each get dropped off in a remote wilderness area by themselves and they see who can survive the longest!

And it’s crazy…I mean they can only bring like 10 items that will fit in a backpack and that’s it.  They are having to build their own shelters, build things to hunt their own food with…and they are doing all this while trying not to get killed by grizzly bears and other wild animals out there!

But the thing is that these are people who have trained for this kind of thing…they are people who have spent years learning the kind of skills necessary to live out there on their own…they learn what kinds of plants they can eat and which ones not to eat…they practice making traps and weapons with raw materials from the land all kinds of things…

And they are physically ready for this challenge…I mean they all have the skills to do the tasks they have to do to survive and be the last man or woman standing…

But as skilled as they are and as physically prepared for this challenge as they are, it’s often not the physical component that is the toughest… it’s the mental component of being ALONE!

It’s the struggle of living in isolation with no community…no one to talk to… no one to encourage you…no one to laugh with or cry with…no one to challenge you or push you…no one to hug or high five…

You are just alone…living in isolation…and it drives many of them crazy.  I mean, even by just the 2nd week they are out there, many of them are talking about how lonely they feel and how much they miss people, and you can tell that it is just agonizing for them. I mean some of them even give names to objects just like Tom Hanks did with a volleyball in the movie Castaway just to try and have some form of community. 

Living in isolation is hard…being alone and not having anyone around is way more difficult than many of them think it will be.

As a matter of fact, in the opening scene of season 8, as they were introducing the show, they put up this quote on the screen that says: “The worst cruelty that can be inflicted on a human being is isolation.” It’s true…

And yet, sometimes, we try to live the Christian life in isolation. We do, we try to go at it alone…We say, “Well, I don’t really need to go to church…I can just live out my individual walk with Jesus…I’ve got access to lots of content (I’ve got books I can read, I’ve got sermons I can watch online, I’ve got blogs I can read…I’m good).

And you know, we might pop into church every now and then and go to a worship service, listen to a sermon…but we don’t live at all in community with others…we have our individual walk w/Jesus and we’re good…and a lot of us basically live the Christian life in isolation.

We’ve been talking this summer about identity and who we are in Christ, and we have mainly been talking about us as an individual (personal identity) and the implications that has on our individual/personal actions & behaviors & our personal walk & journey w/Christ, BUT here’s the deal:

WE ARE NOT MEANT TO LIVE THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IN ISOLATION.  As a matter of fact, the new identity that we receive when we become a new creation in Christ at the moment of salvation is not just an individual, personal identity but a corporate identity as well.

Guys, we share an identity in Christ together.  We are not just joined in union with Christ in a personal relationship with him…we are also joined in union with each other and in relationship with each other as well.

And the writers of the New Testament Scriptures go to great length to make sure that we don’t miss that.  As a matter of fact, there are even several metaphors… several pictures that they have given us to help us see the corporate aspect of our identity and the implications that has on our lives as the church.

And so this morning, we are going to look at some of those examples these New Testament writers gave us to help make sure we see it and don’t miss this incredibly important aspect of our identity & the implications it has on the way we live our lives as well.  Here’s the 1st corporate identity truth I want you to see:

IN CHRIST, WE ARE FAMILY

In John 1:12-13, John says…

12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God

When we put our faith and trust in Jesus for salvation, we are born again spiritually into His family, and each one of us becomes a son or daughter of God…which makes us brothers and sisters in Christ.  We are now family.  As a matter of fact, the apostle Paul even says this in Ephesians 2:19…

19 You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household

We are members of the household of God together.  Not only are we individual sons and daughters, but we are family.

New Testament Professor, Joseph Hellerman, writes this in one of his books…

God, in Jesus' great work of redemption, was not establishing a series of isolated personal relationships with His individual followers. He was creating a family of sons and daughters—siblings—who are now all one in Christ Jesus. The saving work of Christ therefore has a corporate, as well as an individual, dimension. For Paul, the church is a family.

Guys, we are not Lone Ranger Christians, we are a family…And being a family of course has implications.  And of the main implications is that as a family, we are meant to live in community w/each other… we are meant to live in intimate relationships with one another.

To encourage one another, to love one another, to carry one another’s burdens…We are meant to challenge one another and serve one another and just be involved in each other’s lives as Christ works in us and through us to bring life to others and to receive His life as He works in and through them

 So that is 1 picture of our corporate identity, we are a family…and families do life together.  Now, here’s another corporate identity truth:

WE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST

In Ephesians 1:22, the apostle Paul says…22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Paul gives us this picture of the church being the body of Christ.  Jesus is the Source, the head and we collectively are His body.  And being a body means of course, that we are a unit, all joined & attached together & we fit together as one.  We have a corporate identity

Now, this of course isn’t the only place Paul talked about the church being a body…he mentioned in other places as well.  One of those is in Romans 12…

4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

“Belongs”…see it’s part of who we are (a corporate identity)…but here’s what I want you to see here: Paul says that even though we as individuals are many…we form just one body.  But that doesn’t just mean us at CHBC.  We may have various local churches, but all of those local churches make up one church…one body.  We may have individual Christians all throughout the world…millions of us, but we are still one body and Jesus is the head.

So there is an aspect of being the body of Christ, where we see men, women, Baptist, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Methodists, and on and on as One Body…we are all One.  But what we do is focus so much on what our differences are and trying to prove we are right and they are wrong…but listen, there is no US and THEM…it’s just US.  (not every “church” may have true believers…but I think we have started throwing the word “heresy” and we’ve been making ourselves the “gatekeepers” of heaven instead of leaving that job to Jesus)…

So that is one aspect of our corporate identity we need to see…we are the universal church, one body of Christ.  Now we may not all agree on every part of Scripture, but if we have trusted in Jesus for salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Him, then we are one body

Paul also brought up the imagery of the church as the body in 1 Corinthians 12 and in a discussion about individual gifts and how they were arguing about who was more important and who was greater, and here’s what Paul said

20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

“Each one” (individuals)…And so while we each will have different gifts and different roles in the body of Christ, Paul says we are all equally important and we all have value…and all of our gifts and roles work together in unity.

And so that is another huge aspect of our corporate identity being that of a body…it emphasizes the unity with which we live out being the church.  We focus on the Head of our Body and where He is leading us and in Him being our Source…not on our own strength or our own preferences or on just our gifts and our role.  No, the Head guides and empowers the whole body to go as a unit where He wants it to go and to do what He wants it to do.

And really before moving on…the picture of being individual parts of a body should remind us of how crucial life together really is.  We can’t say, “I don’t need the church…I can live the Christian life on my own.”  I mean if we are a body, then the idea of living an isolated Christian life should bring up the graphic imagery of being dismembered.  We would be an arm cut off from the body just laying on the ground by itself… it doesn’t make sense…

We are not in isolated personal relationships w/Jesus.  We are the body of Christ together…a unit…and we are also as we said earlier, a family.  But let me give you one more image and it’s that of a building…

IN CHRIST, WE ARE A BUILDING

I read to you earlier what Paul said in Ephesians 2:19 about being members of his household…being a family.  Well in that same passage, right after giving us this picture Paul switches metaphors almost immediately to that of us also being a building.  Look at it again, beginning in verse 19…

19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

So it is true that Jesus comes to dwell in us as an individual (body=temple) but Paul also says that what is true is that together we are a building that Jesus lives in…that we become the house of God.  He dwells in us together

And again, the picture of each one of us being individual stones or bricks being joined together brings such a corporate aspect to our identity.

I mean, you go out and begin watching some brick layers and they take one brick and paste some mortar on it and lay another brick on top of it and at first your attention is still often times on the individual bricks…but when they finish the building our focus is not on the individual bricks but on the building it has become!  We don’t say, “Wow, look at that magnificent brick!” and point at one of the thousands of brick on a building…NO, we say, “Wow, look at that magnificent building!”

Again, we have a corporate identity as believers in Christ…we collectively are a beautiful building that Jesus is constructing.  He is the cornerstone and the architect…He is the Master Builder, and this building is still being put together.  He is adding new stones onto the building each and every day as new believers come to know Him as their Lord and Savior as well.

And not only are they made a part of a beautiful building, but they are become part of Christ’s body and part of His family…Our family!  And so this is not a closed family or a finished building…and there is still room for other body parts to join and have a role in His Kingdom work.

And so this is good news for those of you who may not have accepted Christ as your Savior yet…there is still room if you’ll receive Jesus into your life by faith…But it’s also a reminder to us who have that there’s still room in our family for others in our community and around the world that Jesus uses us to love & serve and welcome into the family the same way He used someone else to do for us. So this is one of the implications of our corporate identity, but there are others:

I mean we’ve been saying all summer long that what we believe about ourselves is often the main influencer of our behavior and actions, and when we come to see that we have a corporate identity…when we begin to take ownership and truly believe that we are a building that Jesus is constructing, that we are part of His body, that we are family…it will influence the way we live our lives.

We will begin to value unity over individual preferences…we will begin to value the universal church and what we have in common over our differences…and we will begin to value living in community with others.

I mean, when you truly believe we are a family, then you will value spending time with the family…

We’ll value this time together, where we worship corporately together and learn and grow together and then leave united together as family and the body of Christ.

We’ll also value small groups and doing life together.  As you know, we’ve been having each Sunday School group over for dinner this summer to get to know you as the church better because we are family…

But one of the things I’ve noticed with every group that has been in our home has been the deep relational connections with each other.  I see people poking at each other and having fun together because they know so much about each other and their lives…and I’ve heard stories from so many people who say “they were at our wedding or at the birth of our kids or they were here for me when my husband passed or I went through a divorce and I don’t know how I would have made it through without them.”

And I’ve also heard stories from people talking about how they’ve served together and how Jesus has used them as a group to make impact in our community or somewhere around the world…

And it has just blessed my heart to hear those stories and see those interactions, so if you are a part of a group…keep going and stay involved and allow Jesus to lead you into doing life together.  And if you are not part of a group, don’t stay isolated…don’t try to live the Christian life alone…get plugged in…do life together with others…because…

You are part of a family – it’s who you are – it’s part of your identity – so live who you are by being relationally connected with your family and serving together as a family and as the body of Christ.