LORDSHIP

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In the same way, we often forget what scripture says about Christ's rulership over all things including in His relationship with the church: "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him, all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him (Christ) all the fullness should dwell...For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power." (Col. 1:15-19, 2:9-10). Can there be any doubt from the above verses that Jesus is the Head, not only of the Church, but over all creation, even the spiritual principalities. Paul even warned us: "As you therefore have received Christ the Lord, so walk in Him...Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ." (Col. 2:6-8). We have our beginning in salvation through the Lordship of Jesus Christ, but sometimes as we continue in our walk of faith, we lose the understanding of His Lordship in all things. The philosophies and traditions of the world systems, that can sound good to those who are about to fall to their temptation, begin to edge their way in to our thinking. In general, the philosophies of the world do not embrace either the Lordship of the Father, or of His Son, Jesus. I would like to look at two examples of this in the Sabbath reading for this week. In Numbers Chapters 16 and 17, four highly regarded men challenged the leadership of Moses and Aaron. They took (laqah- take away, carry away, snatch, select, take possession of) 250 leaders, men of renown, from the congregation of Israel, and approached Moses and Aaron with the following complaint: "You take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD? (Num. 16:3). Even though the rebels cloak their challenge in spiritual terms, their attitude is one we see in the world even today: "Who made you the boss?" or "You think you're better than everyone else." They accused Moses of acting like a prince over the people (v. 13). One of the rebels, Korah, was a Levite, and Moses addressed his answer to him: "Hear now, you sons of Levi: Is it a small thing to you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to Himself, to do the work of the taberncle of the LORD, and to stand before the congregation to serve them, and that He has brought you near to Himself, you and all your brethren, the sons of Levi, with you? And are you seeking the priesthood also?" (v. 8-10). Instead of seeing his important role in the tabernacle, the house of God's presence and glory, with which God had honored him as a Levite, Korah despised it as unimportant, and coveted someone else's position instead. Moses told Korah and his fellow rebels that they were "gathered together against the LORD", not against Moses and Aaron. Moses made clear, as he prophesies the judgment of God upon the rebels, that "the LORD has sent me to do all these works, for I have not done them of my own will." (v. 28). We know from scripture how God called Moses, and that Moses did not seek nor want the position that God commanded him to take. Moses tried every argument to convince God to choose someone else, but finally and obediently acepted his role from God. Scripture also tells us that God, through His servant Moses, did many wonderful and miraculous works in order to deliver His people. Yet spiritually ambitious Israelites thought they should decide who would lead the people, rather than God. As the rebellion against Moses continued, the LORD threatened to consume the whole congregation in a moment, but Moses and Aaron, as true servants of God, fell on their faces and interceded for the congregation. The LORD relented and brought a judgment that had never been seen before against only the rebels, and those who chose to stand with them: the earth opened and swallowed them alive directly down into the pit (Num. 16:30-33). In truth, these rebels had not been challenging only Moses with their conspiracy, but they had challenged the LORDSHIP of God over Israel, and everything pertaining to them. In this week's haftarah reading portion from 1 Sam. 11 and 12, the prophet and judge of Israel, Samuel, admonished Israel for rejecting God as their LORD, when they chose to have a king to rule over them, instead of the man of God appointed by Him. God had placed Samuel over them as their judge, but the people of Israel yielded to the temptation of the philosophies and traditions of the world in their desire to be ruled as the other nations of the world were ruled: by a king. They put their deliverance from their enemies into the hands of that king (1 Sam. 12:11-12). Samuel warned the people that while they did get the king that they desired, they and their king, must fear the LORD and continue to serve Him, and obey the voice and commandments of the LORD, or it would not go well with them, as it did not with their fathers (v. 13-15). If they were to turn aside from the LORD, "then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing." (v. 21). As a sign of the LORDSHIP of their God, by the call of Samuel, the LORD sent rain on the day of the wheat harvest (v. 17-18). Because of the rain, the greatly anticipated yearly wheat harvest in Israel would yield far less in tonnage weight as the rain washed away a great deal of weight from the seed heads of the grain. After seeing this sign of rain sent on the harvest day, the people cried out to Samuel to pray for them: "Pray for your servants to the LORD your God, that we may not die; for we have added to all our sins the evil of asking a king for ourselves." (v. 19). Responding to the people's request for his intercessory prayer on their behalf, Samuel showed the same reverence for the LORDSHIP of God as Moses did when he prayed on behalf of the people. Samuel said, "...as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you; but I will teach you the good and the right way...For the LORD will not forsake His people, for His great name's sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you His people." (v. 22-23). Samuel understood and was led the covenant promise that the LORD had made with His people. The title of this week's Sabbath reading portion is Korach, which is the Hebrew name of the rebel, Korah. The Hebrew word means "bald". What does baldness have to do with Korah, or his rebellion? I think the title pertains to the way that Korah despised his spiritual "covering", which was Moses, Aaron, and therefore the Lordship of God Himself. He rebelliously sought to remove that covering. He became spiritually "bald" as a result, and it brought him to destruction. Most of us are familiar with the examples here of Moses, Aaron and Samuel, but this Sabbath reading carries a very timely message for today. In the same way that the LORD had set His servants over His people, He has also set, appointed, ordained servants over His Church to lead, teach, and equip the saints to "do the work of the ministry" (see above Num. 16:8-10), and to lead them out of slavery to sin, and into our Promised Land, which is found in the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:11-13). In doing so, these appointed servants also help to keep the saints from being swayed by trickery, and every wind of deceitful plotting and doctrines (Eph. 4:14). This is especially important in these times when tumultuous events tempt us to be drawn to the empty philosophies and traditions of the world to solve our problems, and to defeat our enemies. How we view and treat those who have been ordained to be our spiritual covering by the Head of the Church, Christ, reflects what we really believe about His Lordship over us. Our Father doesn't want us to be Korach, or "bald". If you desire to place youself under the perfect All-In-All Lordship of Christ, you can pray: "Lord Jesus, I believe that You are the Head over all things, including the Church. I want You to be Lord over my life. As Lord, it is You who suffered and died for my sins, and rose from the dead, so I can have eternal life with You. By Your Holy Spirit, and Your commandments, teach me to understand and follow You as my Lord and Savior. Thank You for those whom You have appointed to cover me, to teach me, and to intercede before You on my behalf. I ask You these things in Your name, which is above all other names, AMEN."

Divine

Treating the divine as if it were common can be an easy, but extremely dangerous trap to fall into. In the chapter which deals with communion, 1 Cor. 11:17-34, Paul brings insight and gives a warning concerning this issue:
"But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning (to esteem, approve, prefer, determine, distinguish on account of) the Lord's body. For this reason, many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged."  1 Cor. 11:28-31
The Lord's body is described within the communion that Paul was discussing in this chapter. His body spoken about here goes beyond the physical elements of the bread and wine, and instead envelopes the purpose of His coming-as the Son of God, His body broken for us, receiving the punishment that we deserve, overcoming death for us in order to create a new, resurrection body for us, and His blood covering and satisfying the lawful judgment of the Old Covenant, and creating the New Covenant. This New Covenant defeats the power of death from our sin, and provides eternal life in His righteousness. When we participate in this communion with Him, we are remembering His accomplishment for us, and in us, until He comes again. Paul tells us that every time we participate in communion, we "shew" (declare, teach, preach, proclaim publicly, root: "as an angel") that the Lord has victoriously completed His work of salvation for all (v. 24-26). A modern English form of the word, "shew" is proclaim, meaning "to publicly or officially announce, especially when dealing with a matter of great importance". Yet, there were those in the church at that time who treated the communion elements as if they were just a meal. Paul said, that when we do not discern what Christ was providing for us when He ordained the communion, we reduce the divine purpose from heaven which has been given to us, into something common. As a result, many became sick and slept, or died (v. 30).
In leaving us the instruction for communion, I don't think that Jesus' purpose was to institute a legalism, but to provide a way to continually announce and offer His salvation to the world.
I would like to take this precept of divine provision, and consider it in regard to other issues we may face in the body of Christ.
Paul goes on to describe in the next chapter, the Lord's body, that He created from His own:
"For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ....For in fact, the body is not one member, but many...But now, God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased...But God has composed the body...that there should be no schism (division, dissension, rt: to break, to cleave, to split into factions) in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another...Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually."
                                                                                                      1 Cor. 12:12-27(excerpt)
We do not place ourselves in the body, but God has done this. He specifically does this in order to prevent division, dissension, and the splitting into factions. Uh-Oh!! That's exactly what the church has become: divided, dissenting, and split into thousands of factions. So what happened? I think we took something divinely created and appointed, and exerted our own will over it, reducing it to the common.
This divinely appointed body has a head, for what good would a body be without a head?!
"And He (Christ) is the head of the body, the church..." Col. 1:18.
And, "...grow up in all things into Him who is the head-Christ-from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love."                                                                                       Eph. 4:15-16
From these scriptures, we can conclude that while we are the body of Christ, the head of this body is Christ, Himself. Again, with Christ as the head, every part of the body is in its correct place, supplying the whole body, and growing. Uh-Oh!! What happened again? Could it be that we have replaced Christ's headship with our own, thereby replacing the divine with the common, again?
As the head, "...He Himself gave (furnished, appointed, endued, entrusted, committed, given to someone to care for his interests) some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping (perfecting) of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;"  Eph. 4:11-13
We are members of the body, set in our places in that body by God, with Christ as the head, who has appointed certain ones to develop us to a specific end. Have we accepted those whom Christ has divinely appointed over us, or have we rejected them in order to exercise our own choice in the matter?. These appointments are His divine provision for us that will produce unity, and spiritual growth into knowledge, perfection and Christ's fullness.
When we do not recognize these things in that manner, we do not receive the benefit of the provision, and we suffer for it. These appointments concerning the body are not a matter of chance, nor choice, but by divine ordination and decree. We have a King/Lord/Head in Christ, and a heavenly Father, who make those determinations regarding us, and gift us accordingly by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:11). If we fail to discern the divine source and connection to how, where, and under whom we have been placed in the body by God and Christ, instead thinking we can decide these things for ourselves, we reduce the divine to the common, as the Corinthian church did in the matter of communion. In this case, the ordination of the Father and the headship of the Son over the church is replaced by the realm of man's will and determination. Again, as with the communion issue, I don't think the Father's purpose, and the structure created by Christ, was to institute a legalistic demand upon us, but to provide a divine benefit for the church, the body of Christ, and each individual member thereof. At the same time, a divinely driven church would fulfill God's plan for the church-the ministry of reconciliation between God and man, by being the Body of Christ in the earth.
If we refuse Christ's Lordship over His body, including our assigned place and part of the body, we reject His and His Father's provision for us. This can bring harm to ourselves, and certainly to the church. This requires serious self-examination and prayer, regarding our views of Christ, His body, and our presence and position in that body. If we judge ourselves in this matter, we will not be judged (1 Cor. 11:31).
Not discerning the Lord's body, according to Paul's words, is very dangerous. It is a trap set by the enemy, and approved by our own flesh, in which we can so easily be snared if we are not careful.

Our Father has placed us in the body, with Christ as its Head.

"The Doxology"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQUTvMtUhw4