The Mix

So welcome.

And, if you're new to the church or you're new this morning, then on the first Sunday of every month, we have a service called the mix. Where we have adult teaching in bite sized chunks. So it's lovely for us to service because we have many more of our children and young people in for the entire service as we look at some of the big truths in the bible together. And today, we are thinking about the topic of union with Christ. Now union with Christ is 1 of the main themes and truths in this month's catechism.

Which we've been working through together. And so we're gonna consider what it means for us to be in Christ and united to Christ, this morning. Now on the screen, you will see there are a number of ways that Christians are described in the Bible. Okay? Here's just a few of them.

So from Mark chapter 1, Christians are described as fishes of men. Those who go out and throw the net of the gospel out, and try to call others in to follow Christ. Fisher of men, followers of Jesus in Luke 14. Jesus says, if anyone wants to follow after me, Christians are those who follow on the road of Jesus. Children of God, John chapter 1.

Those who belong to the way in acts chapter 9. So very early on in the church, to follow Christ was to be a follower of a new way, and Christians were followers of the way. And then in acts 11 at Antioch, the followers of Jesus are first called Christians, which is the name most of us use today. But actually, when you look at the new testament, you see that the most common description of a Christian is 1 who is in Christ. In fact, that language of being in Christ, that little phrase is found something like 200 times in the new testament, a Christian is a child of god, a brother or sister in Christ.

And you just look out for that now in your own Bible reader. If that's new to you, that idea. Once you see it, you can't unsee it. It is everywhere, particularly in Paul's letters, this idea of Christians being in Christ. But here's the problem.

It's not the easiest thing to describe that, is it? What it actually means for us to be united to Christ because I don't walk around in this earth with a rope connecting me to Jesus in heaven as if I'm sort of united to him physically. And neither is it a bit like those Russian stacking dolls where you know, hears me and I go inside and Christ goes over me and I sort of move around in Christ. So what does it actually mean to be in Christ? And this is where the Bible is so wonderful because it doesn't just tell us that.

It gives us loads of very helpful and very visual pictures of what it means to be a person in Christ. And that's what we're gonna be looking at in our mix to date. So as I said today, we are thinking about the topic of union with Christ, and what it means for god's people to be in Christ. And to begin, I want you to imagine that you have just booked yourself a jet to holiday. K?

Cause as we all know, nothing beats a jet to holiday. Okay? You know the phrase, don't you? Nothing beats a jet to holiday. So you booked your summer holidays and you are very excited about it.

And as the summer approaches, the day finally comes, and your bags are all packed, and you're ready to go, and you've made it to the airport, and you've been through baggage control and you've made your way through passport control and you and your family or whoever you're going with have finally made it to the departure gate. And you are about to set off for Tenerife. Okay. So you've got a lovely summer holiday ahead of you. You're in the departure gate, and you can see your airplane outside the window.

And you're waiting to be called to board the plane. Now here's a question, and it's 1 you can just consider quietly in your own mind and heart for now. In order to get to Tenerife, what relationship do you need to have with that plane? On that plane? Whereas, you are, yeah, brilliant.

How did you know we were doing that? Wow. Come here, bring it up, Zocchi. Let's have a look. Here we go.

Let's say Europe, what is it? Come and tell us. It's an A 3 80. This is Emirates. So unlikely to be going to Tenerife, isn't it?

But possibly. Okay. Brilliant. Alright. Thank you very much, Okey.

Go on. So let's say you've got your plane, you can see your plane. What relationship do you need with the plane in order to get to tennery? Is it enough to just be underneath the plane? Do you go out onto the runway?

And you kind of stand under the main carriage and you're in the shadow of the plane and you can see its engines. Is it enough to just be under it? Might it somehow carry you to tenerife just by virtue of you being under the plane, or is it enough for you to just be inspired by the plane? So you stay in the departure gate and you watch it going off to tenerife without you and you say to yourself, do you know 1 day I'm gonna learn to fly, and I'm gonna follow after that plane? Is it enough just to try to follow the plane to tend to wreath?

So again, you're at the departure gate and you watch the plane sailing off into the blue sky and you think, okay, I reckon that that plane has gone broadly east, southeast, you know, and so it follows that if I set off in an east southeast direction, then I think sooner or later, I'll make it to Tenerife just by following it. Would any of those things be the right relationship with the plane in order to get to Tenerife? We know the answer, don't we? No. No.

No. The key relationship that you need with that plane if you wanna make it to Tenerife is not to be under it or inspired by it or to be following it, you need to be inside it. If you are going to share in the destination of that plane, you have to be inside it. In fact, when you're inside it, all of a sudden, your destiny and the destiny of the plane are very much now bonded, aren't they? So that if the plane makes it to Tenerife, you make it to Tenerife.

If the plane crashes into the North Atlantic, you crash into the North Atlantic. If it lands safely, you land safely. Your destinies are bonded when you're inside it so that when you're landing in Tenerife, turn on your phone, take off airplane, modem, text your friend to say, I've just made it safely. What you actually mean is the plane made it safely, and therefore I made it safely. And if they text back to say, was it a good trip?

And you say, yeah, it was a really good trip. What you mean is the plane had a really good trip. And therefore, I had a really good trip. Do you see how only when you're inside is your destiny bonded. That would not be true if you were sat at Gatwick Airport watching it leave without you.

Your destiny would not be bonded to it in the sun. You have to be inside it to share in its destination. Now that little illustration gets us somewhere close to what it actually means to be in Christ. The Bible tells us that when a person trusts in Jesus as their lord and savior, they become 1 with Christ. A Christian is not just a person who's been inspired by Jesus, and a Christian is not just a person who merely is under the authority of Jesus.

We are under the authority of Jesus, but a Christian is not just someone sort of cowering in the shadow of Jesus. A Christian, and this is an amazing thing. A Christian is a person who has actually been grafted in to Jesus. They are in Christ. And therefore, largely speaking, what is true of Jesus is also true of us now that we're in him.

Let me show you that in a few places from the Bible. Here's Romans chapter 6. Paul is writing. If we have been united with him in a death like this, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like this. For we know that our old self was crucified with him.

See, the language of union and inness. We were crucified with him. In Galatians 2 20, Paul says I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives around me or over me or inspiring me, no Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of god who loved me and gave himself for me And if you've got 1 of the older worksheets, you'll see this verse on the screen and you can fill in some of the blanks as I read it.

Since then, you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of god, set your minds on things above, not on earthly things, for you died. Doesn't mean physically, does he? You died, and your life is now hidden with Christ and God When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Do you notice all of that union language?

If you are in Christ, you died with him. And when he rose in some extraordinary way, you also rose to a new resurrection life. And when he went back to heaven and took his seat, you sat with him in the place of victory. And when he appears for a second time, your life will appear. That would be your life appearing.

Because you are in Christ. What is true of him is true of you because you're in him. Now I know that that is still not the easiest thing to describe and to wrap your head around, but the Bible is trying to show us that as a Christian, you and I are so connected to Christ that when he died, we died They think how could that be because I wasn't there and I'm still actually alive. So it can't be in a physical sense, but rather what it means is that when Christ died, my sinful nature, the old me, sinful old Tom, was judged and punished and killed in Christ when he died. And when he rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, even though I wasn't there physically, my new spiritual life began in him because Christ rose so that I could 1 day rise.

He died so that I would 1 day die. So this language is trying to help us to see that we're not just people motivated by Jesus or inspired by Jesus, but we have come to share in the destiny of Christ that where he goes, eye goes, and when he died, I died. And when he rose, I rose, we're in him, vitally in him. And so this is for the great encouragement of god's people. Jesus is not only a good example for us to follow.

We are now in him, and all that is true of him is true of us. Okay. So we've thought about the aeroplane as a picture of what it means to be in Christ. And we've thought about the need to be inside the plane if we're going to share in its destination and its future And in the same way, we need to be in Christ by faith so that we can share in the destination of Christ and the future. But that illustration only helps us a little bit.

Because when you think about it, the the plane, after all, is just a vehicle, and passengers don't have any kind of living relationship with the plane. It it just carries them to a destination. Yeah? But according to the Bible, to be in Christ is much more than that. It is to have a living relationship with Christ.

That's what it means. So Christian is not just someone who's trusted in Jesus so that they can be carried to heaven by some kind of rescuer whom they will never know. To be in Christ is to actually know and to love and to enjoy a relationship, a vital relationship with Christ. And 1 of the best places to see that is in the words of Jesus, from John 15. This is the illustration that he uses with his disciples to explain what it's gonna mean for them to be in him, woo, and to remain remain in him.

So here's John 15. I am the vine you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you in me, I in you, like a vine and branches, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. Now here's where I'm gonna attempt to do something visual to try to rub these words in.

Okay. So on the stage here is a table. And on this table, I'm gonna put 2 pots. Okay? The first is this pot here which is not a very living tree.

Okay? Am I doing something to to explode this? No. It's just exploding for the cuts. Okay.

Alright. That's good to know. And the second part is here. My lovely does anyone know what fruit that is? Not an orange.

Not a tomato. Clio. It's not a Satsuma. It begins with k, ends in a t. Come yeah.

Well done, Ben. It's a Kumquat tree. Okay. So if we take 1 of these 1 of these branches, let's take this 1 here with all the sort of kumquats on it. And we ask the question, why why is this branch alive here?

Why is this branch alive? Why is this particular branch so fruitful? And the answer is because it is connected to the tree. Yeah? That's why.

This branch, if I were to break it off, would wither and die very, very quickly, and the fruit would begin to dry up and it would go all horrible very, very quickly. Now why is that? Because the branch does not have life in itself. It does not have life in itself. All of its life and its energy, and therefore all of its ability to bear fruit comes because of its connection to the tree.

So whilst it's in the tree, it's fruitful because the nutrients and the water and the life is flowing from the tree into the branch and it's fruitful. But as soon as we were to sever that connection, it would all begin to die for it does not have life in itself. And this is what Jesus is saying to his disciples. I am the vine, unlike the tree, you are the branches, if you trust in me as your savior and lord and if you remain in me, the word that Jesus actually uses there is the word for abiding. You think about abiding or an old word for a dwelling might be an abode.

An abode is somewhere where you live. So if you trust it, if you abide in Jesus live in Jesus, then you will bear much fruit. What does Jesus have in mind there when he talks about fruit? Well, it's the sort of thing, let me just change the slide, it's the sort of thing that Paul talks about in Galatians 5. This is the fruit of the spirit.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. So Jesus is saying to his people for as long as you trust me and remain in me, then you will bear the fruit of my life. That's what Jesus is saying here. These these fruits are the spirit. They're not just kind of nice virtues that God adds to a Christian.

That's a description of Jesus. That's who Jesus is. And so when a Christian is trusting Christ, Christ is in them and the character of Christ is coming out. You see the love and the joy and the peace and gentleness of Jesus. That's what a Christian is.

It's a Jesus person who Jesus is coming out and bearing fruit in them. But if we were to break off 1 of these branches, then we would find that it quickly quickly died because it's been severed from the source. From Jesus. And do you know that image there of breaking away from Jesus actually takes us to the very heart of what sin really is and what sin is all about. You see here I am And let's say I I I wanna be a joyful man.

I wanna be a joyful person. And who here doesn't want to be joyful? Who here doesn't want to know more peace and patience and joy and love. And they're like, we all want that. And now here I am, but instead of looking to Jesus and remaining in Jesus for my joy and life and peace, I I break away from the branch.

Let's say I do that. Okay. And let's say I then try to sort of stick my life to this to this dead tree and I go looking for joy and peace and patience and satisfaction in these kinds of things instead of it Jesus. Okay? So let's say I have a go at that.

Okay? And I tried to sort of plug myself in here. Yeah. What is what is gonna happen to this branch and to these fruits and to these leaves? These are gonna start to wither and decay maybe not straight away, maybe not by the end of the service, but if we came back next week, we'd see 1 of these things still going strong, I hope, and 1 of these things not.

Yeah? This is what idolatry does to us. When we go looking for things like joy and peace and satisfaction, but we disconnect ourselves from Jesus and we try to connect our lives into money, and image and clothes and success and what other people think of us. If we think those are the things that will bring joy and security and peace to my life, then we will find that we quickly begin to wither and die because those in the end, not all bad things, but they're dead trees. They won't give us the things that we desire because idols are dead trees.

It's just wood cut down and put into the soil. And Jesus is saying, this is what it actually means for us to be in Christ. It's to say, lord Jesus. I I don't wanna be impatient and I don't wanna be irritable. And I don't wanna be joyless and I don't wanna be full of self pity and I don't wanna be harsh.

I I want you and the fruit of you in my life and so please will you help me to remain in you. Please. Keep me trusting you. Keep me in your promises. Where my branches are starting to break, would you come like a good gardener and regraft me in and heal the brakes?

So that I keep looking to you for joy and peace and patience and don't try to plug myself in. Sorry. Something weird going on with a wiss sound. I'm afraid you'd just have to try and put up with it. I don't try to plug myself into these things which are in the end gonna kill me.

Do you see how it do you see how it works? What a wonderful image it really is. And so union with Christ, the aeroplane tells us something true We gotta be in Christ to share in the destiny of Christ, but actually it's much more than that because you can't have a relationship with just a metal carrier. Being in Christ is having a relationship with Christ that leads to life and fruitfulness as we remain in him by faith. So in our last section, we are going to consider what this doctrine of union with Christ means for the church.

Okay? Because it's interesting to note how often in the Bible, the language of church goes with the language of union with Christ. Let me just give you a few examples. And again, it's 1 of those things. Once you see it, it's everywhere.

So notice the in Christness but also the churchness. Yeah? Paul and Timothy servants of Christ Jesus to all of god's holy people. Who are in Christ at Philip. Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and Timothy our brother to god's holy people in colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ love that.

God's holy people in a town, faithful brothers and sisters, that's family language in Christ, brothers and sisters together in Christ. And then 1 Corinthians 1, Paul called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and our brother Sosthenes, to the church of god in corinth to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people. Now why does all of that matter and why is it worth emphasizing because union with Christ is not simply an individual thing. It's not just me and my private in Christness in the world, but rather to be in Christ who is described as the head is to also be in the body of Christ which is the church. And 1 of the clearest places to see this is in 1 Corinthians 12.

Now if you've got that older worksheet, you'll notice on the back There's 1 Corinthians 12 and there's also a little word puzzle to help you get at 1 of the verses that is absolutely key to this teaching. So here's a few verses from 1 Corinthians 12 slightly longer reading but do put up with it because it's it's brilliant here. Just as a body though 1 has many parts, but all its many parts form 1 body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by 1 spirit so as to form 1 body where the Jews or gentile slave or free and we were all given the 1 spirit to drink.

Even so, the body is not made up of 1 part but of many. If 1 part suffers, every part suffers with it. If 1 part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ and each 1 of you is a part of it. And so do you see the emphasis there?

When we trust in Jesus Christ, we are not only personally united to him. We are also united to everybody else. Who belongs to him. And that is so vital because today I think there are many Christians who think that it really is possible to have Christ the head and to have a personal relationship with Christ the head, but to have nothing to do with Christ the body, which is the church. And so people will say, well, it's fine for me just to live my private personal Christian life and I'll personally get all the benefits of union with Christ.

I'll have salvation and blessing, but I'll have none of the joy and the duty of belonging to the body of Christ. None of the service requires. None of the humility required. It can just be me and my own personal oneness with Jesus. But if you think about the head and the body illustration, that that simply cannot work, can it?

So let's try to imagine it like a physical body. Let's say that I as a Christian am a hand or a foot, but I don't want any other body members. None of them. I don't need them. All I want is the head Jesus.

So I'll be the hand united to the head or the foot united to the head and it can just be me and Jesus without the rest of you. Yeah? Now, spiritually, as we'll see it makes no sense, but physically it makes no sense. Yeah? It doesn't it's not a thi it looks like something from toy story, doesn't it?

Or, you know, some kind of muted it doesn't work. Yeah? You it's not possible. Yeah. You you know, if you saw somebody like that walking down the street, you would instinctively know there was something extremely seriously wrong with them.

Yeah? Because that is that is an impossible thing. It's a thing that cannot work and actually in the end, it's a dead thing. That's not a living thing. Well, in the same way, we are told that to be united to Christ is to be united to the church.

You you cannot have just you connected to Jesus because actually the life of Christ flows not just from the head but from the whole body and through the whole body to every other parts to be in him as to be is to be in our peep is his in in his people. I think that really changes how we look at each other, doesn't it? You know, as you and I use our hands to serve 1 another week by week, that's like the hands of the lord Jesus Christ. Reaching out through his people to serve his people and to bear fruit. As we use our ears to listen to 1 another each week.

That's that's the ears of Christ in us listening to the voices of his people. And as we use our mouths to teach and to speak words of encouragement, we see that as the lord Jesus in us speaking words of encouragement to 1 another. And so the church is a place where the lord Jesus is gathered and is bearing fruit in us all and not just as individuals. So much so that Paul actually says, if 1 part suffers So every part suffers. In other words, it's not possible for us to imagine 1 part of the body suffering whilst all the rest of it is at peace.

Doesn't work with our physical bodies, does it? If you stub your toe on the door, which is about the most painful thing that could happen to a person, isn't it? There's that second where you know it's happened and you're waiting for the synapse to respond. And it's agony, you know? The stubbing of the the rest of the body is not just stoically at peace.

You know, watching on as the toes suffers. It mobilizes in order to do what it can for the suffering body. Yeah? That's why when Paul or saul is persecuting the church and Jesus interrupts his hateful mission, he says saul saul, why are you persecuting me? Well, Paul doesn't really think he's persecuting Jesus.

He's after the church. He's trying to kill the body, but Jesus says, you're trying to kill the head because that's my body. In other words, there is this oneness and this connection, not just between Jesus and a load of individuals, but between Jesus and his body. And the applications of that, I just think are so important for us. We we we need each other, brothers and sisters, don't we?

You know, some of us are hands, and we're good at practical serving. And it's worth drawing our attention to the set up teams who come here every week and to the refreshment teams and to the PA teams, it's pretty hard coming here every week and trying to replug in and reset up all this equipment. Those are our hands there. Those are the hands serving us. We need the hands.

Some of us are mouths. You know, we're just like gobs on a stick and, you know, we're here just to speak and to encourage. Not all of us are mouths, some of us are mouths. Some of us are ears that are very good at listening and understanding other people's problems, but but the point is no 1 person has everything, do they? No 1 person has everything.

We need each other because Christ is in us, and we need Christ in the other members so that we can all function as as 1 body. And so this is a really big thing, I think. Like, we How do we remain in Christ and abide in Christ? By remaining in the body. You remain connected to the head as you remain in the body.

If you leave the body, you leave the head. So much more vital connection than perhaps we often realize. The head and the body to be in 1 is to be in the other. And of course when you understand that, it becomes the most natural thing in the world to serve 1 another and to consider 1 another. It it's completely ridiculous, isn't to think of members of your own body competing with each other.

Yeah? You know, as this hand is sort of somehow envying and coveting this hand and he's gonna do what it can to put this hand down. They they they know they work together because they exalt each other and lift each other up and help each other. How how weird it is for members of the same body in a church to be in competition with 1 another. To be putting each other down or coveting each.

It's ridiculous in the body. It's ridiculous in the church, but rather we're about the mutual honoring and building up of the body. So all of these things when we're in Christ we're in each other. Yeah? So it's a wonderful thing.

So those are just 3 things for union with Christ. You've got the plane because our destiny is now tied up with Jesus. You've got the vine and the branch because we're talking about a real fruit bearing relationship with Jesus and we're talking about the head and the body because to be in him is to be in the church and it's a wonderful thing. Just 1 1 last point I think before we pray, and it is a it is a short 1 I promise, but I think quite an important 1. You know, I I brothers and sisters and boys and girls here, if we if we can really get the things that we've been looking at this morning about being in Christ and having your identity in Christ, it will bring such stability to your life.

You know, I think many of the problems that we have arise because we look at ourselves in the mirror, and and we either say to ourselves, I wish I was a bit different to what I am. I wish I was more like so and so, or I wish I was less like who I see in the mirror. Or I wish I was like who I used to be, or I wish I was like who I dreamed to be, and we have all these identity problems because we look in the mirror and and we're not happy. But if we can get this I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live. The power of that, I no longer live, so I don't have to dream and be disappointed about what I wish I was or what I could I've been because I no longer live.

Tom's gone. He doesn't live anymore, but Christ lives in me. And the life I live now, I live by faith in the son of god and so my life becomes not about me but who I am in Christ. That is gonna really stay. That will really stabilize us if we can get that in our hearts.

And if you and if you're here as well and you're not yet a Christian, and you've heard all this this morning and you think, oh, sounds good, all these sorts of things, and I think I understand it. Let me just take you back to that airplane. You know, you know, you think about it. You with union with Christ, just like with the plane, it's it's all it's all or nothing. It's all on you're either in him or you're not.

You're either inside with all the blessings of heaven or you're outside. You can't be half in and half out of the plane. You gotta you gotta be in him. So why not this morning say to yourself, I'm gonna I'm gonna get on that plane by faith in Jesus. I'm gonna plug myself into the vine Jesus.

I wanna share with you. I wanna live with you. I wanna know you and he can be your savior this morning. Let's close our eyes, shall we, and pray. Give thanks for what we've learned.

Father, we thank you that as your people, we are not those who are just inspired by Jesus or even merely those just under Jesus that by faith, we have been made 1. With Christ. He is ours. We are his. Him in me.

Me in him. Us in the head together as a body. All of these blessings of Christ, this living relationship with Christ is ours. Through faith and we pray that as Jesus commands that you would help us to remain in him. Apart from him, We can do nothing for we do not have life in ourselves.

So keep us in the saviour we pray in Jesus' name. Our men.