In Touch Ministries

Dr. Charles Stanley: Jesus Christ is the head of the church. That head, listen, has delegated His divine supernatural authority to the body so that you and I, as we exercise the spiritual gifts that God has given us, as we fulfill the mission that God has given us, we have the right to expect the supernatural power of God to be exercised through our life on a daily basis.

Guest (Male): Most of the time, we think about the leader of the church as being the person standing on the platform every Sunday. But today on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, we continue our series to discover who the person in charge really is. Learn more about Christ's role and responsibility as head of the church. Let's listen in to Dr. Stanley's message.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Would you turn please to Ephesians? We are in our series on the church. This is the second message and the title of this one is The Head of the Church. I want us to read beginning in Ephesians chapter one, verse eighteen and reading through verse twenty-three.

We've talked about the church. So Paul began by saying in verse eighteen, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might, which He brought about in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

He put or placed all things in subjection under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Now I want us to look for just a moment at what he says here concerning this matter of the head of the church. Because as you and I look at ourselves, when we talk about our part of the church—that is, here we are, branches on the vine, the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, the stones upon which He's building—what we have to ask is this: whoever the head is, that means that you and I are to be submissive and in subjection to the head, whoever he might be.

He says here that Jesus Christ is the head of the church. He states here in this first chapter that God the Father raised Him from the dead, seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and powers and dominions, and every name is beneath His name, and everything is beneath Him. You recall in Colossians chapter one when he spoke of the creation. He says that Jesus Christ has created all things for Himself. He's the head of all things. He's above all things. He takes preeminence over everything that is presently in existence. That is including the church.

So what I want us to look at for just a few moments is this: what is implied in saying that Jesus Christ is the head of the church? What does that really mean? All right, let's look at several things here. First of all, it means that He is the sovereign authority over the body of Christ. That is, all of us who live in this earth who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we are a part of the body of Christ. He says that He is the sovereign authority over the entire body.

Now, what does that mean when he says he's the sovereign authority over the church? It means that He has absolute and final control and authority over the whole body of Christ. So when we look at the Lord Jesus Christ according to the scriptures, we find back in Colossians, the Bible says that He created all things and all things were created by Him and for Him. He is above all principalities and thrones and authorities. All things are under Him and beneath Him, and He is also head of the body, the church.

He's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him. That is, God the Father took pleasure in setting Jesus Christ as the head of the church, the authority over the body, over the temple, over the bride, over the branches. Now with that in mind, when a person joins a fellowship—that is, a local body—having been saved by God's grace, baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ, they become a part of the body which is subject to the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is the head of the church, the final authority in the body. So when a person says, "Well, I want to join the church but I don't want to make Jesus Christ Lord of my life," my friend, that is a contradiction in terms. When you are baptized into the body of Christ and you become a part of that body, you are baptized into a body the very nature of which is to be subject to the Lord Jesus Christ. So he says here, speaking of His headship, the first implication is that He is the divine sovereign authority over all that goes on among His body and in His body.

The second thing I want you to notice here is implied: the sacrificial love for the church by Jesus Christ, by the head. Now when we say that Jesus Christ loves the church, what does that mean? That means He loves every single one of us who is a member of the body of Christ. So when he speaks here of being the head, of being Lord, he's speaking of headship that is motivated by sacrificial love. It is headship motivated not by domineering power to execute everything that goes on, but motivated by a sacrificial love.

How does the Lord Jesus Christ treat you and me as members of His body? Doesn't He forgive us over and over and over again? Doesn't He express love toward us and accept us as we are and forgive us? He went to the cross and paid for our sins. He's forgiven us of our sins. He's come to live His life within us, to dwell within us. Here is a beautiful example of Christ's sacrificial love. What is he saying? That Jesus Christ, humanly speaking, has earned the right and the privilege to be the sovereign power and the head and the authority of the church because He's been willing to lay down His life for the body.

So when you and I receive the Lord Jesus Christ, we come into a relationship of subjection and submission to Him. Now, I want you to notice another verse here back in Ephesians chapter one. In verse twenty-one of that passage, he says, speaking of His headship, He is far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. Then he says He has placed all things in subjection.

Hupotasso in the Greek is a military term. That means to rank something beneath something else. That means that God has looked over this whole universe. He has evaluated everything and He has ranked every single thing in existence beneath, in position, beneath Jesus Christ. So that Jesus Christ, he says, has the preeminence. He is above everything and has authority over all things, motivated by sacrificial love for you and for me.

The third thing I want you to notice in headship is that He is the sufficient supplier of His church. In Colossians chapter two, notice in verse nineteen. He says, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and the ligaments, grows with the growth which is from God. Let me explain what he means here. That little word "supplied" is a fifteen-letter word in the Greek and it is a word from which we get our word choreography. These folks who are dancing around while they're singing and so forth, you know what that means.

But here's what it means. It is a word that means to equip an army. Before it goes into battle, the army is equipped. Likewise, it means those who are in war are continuously being equipped to carry out the work that they've been given. So what he's saying here is that Jesus Christ is the head of the church from whom the entire body—not part of the body, not most of the body, but the entire body—being supplied, continues the supply of all of our needs and is held together.

You can go to any continent in the world. You can meet people you have never met before who don't even speak your language. When you let them know that you're a Christian and they tell you that they're a Christian, you immediately have a bond between you. What is it that draws two people who live ten thousand miles apart, do not speak the same language, do not have the same color, and come from total cultural backgrounds that are opposite from each other?

What is it that binds them together and gives them a handshake, a smile, a sense of warmth, and a sense of oneness among them? They immediately have fellowship and friendship and accept each other just the way they are. What is it that does that? There is only one thing. It isn't what you learned in school. It isn't something that you picked up here and there. It is the fact that Jesus Christ indwells your life and it is Christ indwelling us that holds us together.

What is it that holds all of us together? A common denominator, and that denominator is the person of Jesus Christ. When you meet another believer, we should never meet a stranger. Why? Because He is the one who not only holds two strangers together who suddenly become friends, He is the one who holds the entire body together. If you take all the believers in all the earth and put them in one great group, you have one thing that holds them together. It is Christ living and freed and liberated in the life of every single believer.

So He is not only the head, He is the body, He is the total summation. Because is it not true that He who is the head likewise is within every single believer so that He, by the Holy Spirit, is indwelling the believer? Christ is above all things, in all things, superior and preeminent above everything. Here's the key. Whether you recognize Jesus Christ as Lord or not does not alter to one iota the fact that He is Lord.

Now, whether He is Lord of your life in a practical way in your daily life depends upon your relationship to Him. But He is Lord and there is no escaping the fact of the lordship of Jesus Christ. He says that He holds the whole body together. He says likewise He supplies what the body needs. Now, here's what that means. It means not only that He supplies what the whole body needs, the whole church, but He supplies what you individually need because you and I make up the church.

Sometimes we want to read these verses and we want to say, "Well, that applies to him or her but it doesn't apply to me." What does that verse say? The head from whom the entire body, being supplied, held together by the joints and the ligaments, grows with a growth which is of God. So that you and I have the right to expect Almighty God to supply every single need of the big body and of His miniature bodies as well as our own individual life. He has assumed that responsibility as the head of the church.

There's a fourth thing I want you to notice when it comes to what the lordship and the headship of Christ means in the body. It also implies the supernatural power of God in that body. You recall what Jesus said to His apostles before He ascended. He said, "All authority has been given to me from heaven." In heaven and earth, He says, "I have all authority. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all the things that I've commanded you, and lo I'm with you all the way, even to the end of this age."

He said, "I'll be with you and I am giving you divine authority to carry out the work that I have called you to." Well, when you and I think about what authority means and what power means, look in Ephesians chapter three. He says here in verse twenty, now unto Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think—and that is Christ. God the Father, Christ, the Holy Spirit.

Unto Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Listen, what power is at work in the life of every single believer? It is the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. The resurrection power of Jesus Christ is not only available to, it already is within the body. God has indwelt within His body supernatural authority and power in order that the body may carry out the function God gave it to fulfill, which is to evangelize and missionize this whole world.

When He says He's Lord, the Bible says He has a right to be Lord. God the Father arranged that He would be Lord. His sacrificial death gives Him the right to be Lord. He will supply all that we need, living within us. But not only that, He says that His supernatural power is released. When Jesus Christ rose from the dead, He said to those apostles that He would come back to be with them through the power of the Holy Spirit, releasing in the church, in the body, the same supernatural power that Jesus had having been raised from the dead.

The body of Jesus Christ, the church today, has one head. His name is Jesus Christ. That head, listen, has delegated His divine supernatural authority to the body so that you and I, as we exercise the spiritual gifts that God has given us and as we fulfill the mission that God has given us, we have the right to expect the supernatural power of God to be exercised through our life on a daily basis. Jesus Christ is the head of the church. He is the head of the body. He is the life of the body indwelling us.

He's the power of the body, the motivation of the body, and the love of the body. Jesus Christ is everything the body needs for the body to fulfill God's original purpose for it. So whatever is true of the body is true of you as an individual—indwelt by, filled by, encompassed by, and covered by the presence of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. So when we come to look at the head of the church, we say that Jesus Christ is the head of the church. The other word used seventy-three hundred and some times in the Bible is the word Lord.

Headship means lordship. Wherein a group of people, a local body of people, are submissive to and have subjected themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, they do that by saying, "Lord, what do You want us to do as a church? We want to follow the principles of scripture. We want to be obedient to You, Lord. Whatever the Bible says, that's what we want to do. We want to make our decisions in this body based on the word of God. We want to follow the pathway that this book has given. We want to live in submission and in subjection to Jesus Christ."

His word is the final authority in our life. The local body that has submitted itself to the final authority of the word of God, which is the word of Christ, that body is in subjection to and Jesus Christ is Lord over that body. The only way for that to happen is for a large number of people in that fellowship to personally acknowledge and live in subjection to Jesus Christ as Lord and master of their life.

One of the problems today is that there's lots of confusion in the church. One of the reasons for that confusion is that oftentimes they make decisions based on other things than the word of God. You'll recall what Jesus said. He said, "Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not what I tell you?" Jesus Christ is Lord in your life when you know what God tells you to do and you don't hesitate or argue with Him about it. You just go ahead and do what He tells you to do. Then Christ is Lord in your life.

If He is the head and if I recognize and acknowledge Him as the head, what am I going to do? I'm going to submit to Him as the head of my life personally. I want to be a member of a group of people who are in the process of growing—as we all are growing—in submission to Jesus Christ and one another. I cannot tell you whether Jesus Christ is Lord of your life or not, but I can tell you this.

If you're one of those persons who's never given your life to Jesus Christ, He's not Lord in your life personally. He's Lord over your life, but He's not Lord in your life. If you are saved and you know that you're saved, but you never share your faith, you never give God a dime, and you live a way that is rather loose, and you sort of do what is convenient for you to do, that's not lordship.

When you want to sin a little bit, you just chalk that off. After all, everybody can't be perfect. God knows you're not perfect, so you don't claim to be or insist on trying to be. In fact, you have already allowed yourself to drift in the areas of your life that you know are wrong because you can't be perfect, so why be perfect? I want to tell you something, friend. If that's your attitude, Jesus Christ isn't Lord of your life.

When your lifestyle is submission to Jesus Christ at every turn of your life and lack of submission is an exception, not the rule, then you can say Jesus Christ is Lord of my life. But if you are saved, my friend, listen: you need to get involved in the body of Christ, submissive to Him and the authorities that God has placed in that church in order that you may do exactly what He says, that you may be supplied and that you may be growing in your Christian life. A rebellious heart is not a growing heart. I want to ask you to give your life, your soul, your spirit, and all that you are to Jesus Christ not only as your Savior, but Lord and master of your life.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. The church is the body of Christ, established and sustained by Jesus Himself. That ought to change the way you think about, interact with, and support your local fellowship. If you would like to learn more about the mission and message of the church, be sure to visit our website at intouch.org.

You can hear this lesson again by clicking Today on Radio on our homepage. To order a copy of Dr. Stanley's message, "The Head of the Church," visit our online bookstore. It's also part of the complete teaching set titled Uniquely a People of God. For all of this and more, log on to intouch.org, or call or text us. The number is 1-800-INTOUCH.

To write to us, address your letter to In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357. One day opposition to Christ will cease. A reminder of that is coming up in today's moment with Charles Stanley.

Guest (Female): Tired of faith feeling like a performance? Worn down by constant striving? Jesus never meant it to feel that way. His call was always to something more—to a life that's generous, vibrant, joyful, and sustainable. A real life with Him. That's the heart of Follow Me, our book created to help you answer that call. Get your copy at intouch.org/store.

In our spiritual journey, we often have questions. How do I know God's will for my life? Does God hear my prayers? Why do bad things happen? The answers are found in the word of God. But how do we know where to start? The free In Touch devotional can help point you in the right direction with biblically-based content from Dr. Charles Stanley. You'll get insight and wisdom through daily devotions, Bible studies, and more. The In Touch devotional is delivered monthly to your mailbox. Subscribe for free at intouch.org/daily.

Guest (Male): You're listening to In Touch. How do you have a New Testament church? Here's a simple answer in a moment with Charles Stanley.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Jesus Christ is Lord in the church where the priority of their concern is: what does the Lord Jesus Christ want us to do? What is it that pleases Him? Whatever pleases Him, that is what we will do, whether anybody likes it or not. That's the only way to have a New Testament church. Recognition of the headship of Christ, submission to that headship, and obedience to Him without arguing and fussing and manipulating God to fit our goal or our particular perspective.

He says Jesus Christ is the head of the church and he says one day, whether you recognize it or not, every single knee is going to bow quickly in the judgment to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Listen, he says even the wicked, diabolical unbelievers are going to have to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, and it is going to glorify God the Father.

Guest (Male): You can learn more about surrendering your life to Jesus Christ at intouch.org. Please share how this program has encouraged you to know Jesus better and to live for Him. Coming soon on In Touch, everyone likes gifts, but the ones believers have from Jesus are extra special. Find out more when our series on the church continues on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley.

This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.