1 Corinthians 12:12-27
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 by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all "been made to drink into one Spirit.
For in fact the body is not one member, but many.
If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body?
And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body?
If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?
But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.
And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.
And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."
No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.
And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our presentable parts have greater modesty,
but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another.
And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually."

In recent weeks, we have been studying the types and symbols of the Old Testament Tabernacle.
We have suggested that the single gate into the sacred enclosure represented Christ, the only way to God. Inside the enclosure, we were confronted with the brazen altar. We suggested that in our New Testament faith, that altar represented the cross upon which Christ made the supreme sacrifice for the sins of the world. Between the brazen altar

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and the curtained Tabernacle, a large vessel containing water was placed. It was used by the ancient priests to wash before going into The Holy Place. We suggested that it was a type of water baptism which Christ commanded to be a part of our Christian testimony to our world.
We have observed that this ancient sacred place of worship depicted our spiritual journey of faith. We come to faith by trusting in Jesus Christ who died on Calvary’s Cross as the sacrifice for our sins, followed by our obedience in being baptized as a follower of Christ.
Now we have arrived at the tent-like structure which housed The Holy Place and The Most Holy Place. The Holy Place was the first compartment of this tent measuring fifteen feet by thirty feet.
It contained three pieces of furniture, namely the Golden Candlestick, the Table of Shewbread, and the Altar of Incense.
We have suggested that The Holy Place is a type of the Church, the Body of Christ. We become members by the work of the Holy Spirit, convicting us and drawing us unto the Saviour. We observed that the candlestick was fed by oil which is a type of the Holy Spirit.
In recent weeks, we considered the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Body of Christ. Today, we turn our attention to the Table of Shewbread.
Observation! There are exactly seven articles of furniture in the tabernacle--two in the court of the Gentiles, three in The Holy Place, and two in The Holy of Holies. There was the Brazen Altar and The Laver in the outer court. Then in The Holy Place, as noted, were the three articles of furniture. In The Holy of Holies was the ark of the testimony, over which was the mercy seat. Seven pieces of furniture--exactly seven, and no more!
Seven is the number of perfection, and it speaks to us of God’s perfect provision for believers who are in Christ. There are seven steps from the outside, where the sinner beholds Christ merely as a man, to the inner sanctum of full and complete rest, and victory in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, let us consider the Table of Shewbread in it’s ancient setting and the spiritual applications in our New Testament faith.
This small table located on the north side of The Holy Place measured three feet in length, one-and one-half feet wide, and two and one-fourth feet high. It was made of acacia wood and covered with pure gold. It had a golden crown or molding all around the outer edge to keep the twelve loaves of bread

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safely upon the table and to prevent them from falling upon the ground and thus being defiled. There were four golden rings, two on each side of the table, through which were passed two bars or handles made of wood and plated with gold. With these bars the table was carried from place to place by the priests whenever they were on the move. The children of Israel were ever on the march. They were in a howling wilderness. They had no abiding place in that Sinai desert, and as such they are typical of the believer during this life, who passes through this world. The table in the tabernacle points like all the tabernacle to the Lord Jesus Christ. Both the table and the bread upon the table represent Him. On it were placed twelve loaves of bread, six each in two separate rows. The bread was flavored with frankincense. This constituted the food of the priest. About this table the priests worshiped and fellowshipped daily, on the basis of the blood of the sacrificial animal slain on the altar. The bread also speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ, the living Bread, who came down from heaven. Jesus said; "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst. I am the bread of life. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever." (John 6:35, 48, 51)
The bread on this table was symbolic of the body of Christ. The table was the center of fellowship for the priests, the bread was the living Word, as revealed in the written Word.
The lesson for us is definite and clear. We are New Testament priests, ministering unto the Lord Jesus Christ.
"Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever, and ever. Amen." (Revelation 1:4-6) "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." (1 Peter 2:9)
We have come by way of the altar, the cross. We have professed our faith publicly in the waters of baptism, and now we are to seek fellowship for worship with other saints in

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The Holy Place, which represents the Church, the Body of Christ. The table, therefore in The Holy Place speaks of fellowship and worship.
The basis and center of this fellowship was the table of shewbread. As noted, around this table the priests gathered daily. Since the table and the bread are Christ, all true fellowship must be around the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were to feed on Him as the Bread of Life, flavored with the frankincense of the Holy Spirit. The sustaining food of the believer then, is the Word of God, both the living Word and the written Word, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit, represented by the bread, the Word, and the frankincense, the Holy Spirit.
Let’s think for a moment on the Church, its purpose and mission.
The Church emerged from the barren soil of first-century Judaism and was considered by its enemies to be nothing more than a Jewish sect. Founded by Jesus Christ, built on apostolic preaching, and spread abroad by persecution and missionary zeal, Christianity has reached into almost every part of the inhabited globe.
The early message of the apostles was not an apology or argument for God’s existence. It was simply good news, reciting the great events in the ministry of Jesus Christ. It became a profoundly simple and yet powerful confession of Christ’s Lordship and of what had happened to the community of disciples. At its heart, the message is summed up in the text of 1 Corinthians 15:1-11.
"Now let me remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good news I preached to you before. You welcomed it then and still do now, for your faith is built on this wonderful message. And it is this Good News that saves you if you firmly believe it--unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place.
I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me--that Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and He was raised from the dead on the third day, as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the twelve apostles. After that, He was seen by more than five hundred, of His followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died by now. Then He was seen by James and later by all the apostles. Last of all, I saw Him too, long after the others, as though I had been born at the wrong time. For I am the least of all the apostles, and I am not worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted the church of God.

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But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out His special favor on me--and not without results. For I have worked harder than all the other apostles, yet it was not I but God who was working through me by His grace. So it makes no difference whether I preach or they preach. The important thing is that you believed what we preached to you." (1 Corinthians 15:1-11)
As revealed in the New Testament the Church is unique and distinct from anything known before. Early Christians understood that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, and they were ambassadors of Jesus.
Luke’s account of the first days of the early Church makes it clear that they were fired with zeal because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
We are now two thousand years removed from the beginning days of the Christian Church. So it is proper to ask the question...What are the marks of the true Church? What are the essential ingredients of a New Testament Church?
The Reformers first of all pressed the distinction between the Church visible and the Church invisible. "I have observed that the Scriptures speak of the Church in two ways, wrote Calvin in his INSTITUTES, There is "the Church as it really is before God--the Church into which none are admitted but those who by the gift of adoption are sons of God, and by the sanctification of the Spirit true members of Christ." God alone knows who are the genuine believers, and therefore it is inescapable that the real Church will always consist of both wheat and tares, genuine and counterfeit. Jesus told this parable: "All right, He said, "I, the Son of Man, am the farmer who plants the good seed. The field is the world, and the good seed represents the people of the Kingdom. The weeds are the people who belong to the evil one. The enemy who planted the weeds among the wheat is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the harvesters are the angels.
Just as the weeds are separated out and burned, so it will be at the end of the world. I, the Son of Man, will send My angels, and they will remove from My Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil, and they will throw them into the furnace and burn them. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the godly will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom. Anyone who is willing to hear should listen and understand." (Matthew 13:37-43)
With this distinction in mind, what are the marks of a true New Testament Church? One outstanding and essential mark is FAITHFULNESS

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TO THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. "The Church of the living God," wrote Paul to Timothy, "is a pillar and bulwark of the truth." The Church is to believe, guard, live by, and proclaim the gospel of Christ. Without this, there is no salvation, no knowledge of God, and no Church. A church that does not preach the gospel of the Cross, repentance from sin, and a life lived in holiness, purity and godliness...is not a New Testament Church! The preaching of the Cross will always be offensive to the sinner and it is not the goal of a New Testament Church to make the sinner comfortable! Certainly there are many other ingredients which are beneficial to the Church, but the only absolute requirement is to hold fast and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed in the written Word of God, the Scriptures.
The Reformers emphasized the purity of the gospel and the rightness of the sacraments as being the basic marks of a true Church. "As soon as falsehood has forced its way into the citadel of religion," wrote Calvin, "as soon as the sum of necessary doctrine is inverted, and the use of the sacraments is destroyed, the death of the Church undoubtedly ensues."
The difficulty with credal formulae and propositional definitions is that it is possible to have all the necessary requirements yet be totally without the signs of life. It is not enough to adhere to the Scriptures, or to administer faithfully the sacraments, or to belong to the universal institution of the Church, unless there is true spiritual life. It was the Holy Spirit who brought about the birth of the Church. Without His indwelling power there could be no Church, no matter how loyal or doctrinally correct the first disciples might have been.
One of the first requirements for the unity of the Church in the first century was the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit. Through the cross of Christ, such unity was possible; and through the life of the Spirit, such unity was real. This is a point that seems often to be overlooked when the Church is looking for the theological basis on which its unity can be found.
The evident presence of the Holy Spirit within the life of the Church is the unity of the community of believers and the continual and consistent life-changing work of the Spirit in the life of the believer and the unbeliever.
The Church consists of believers in Jesus Christ, baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, committed to one another in love and called out of this world into a worshiping, caring, and witnessing

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fellowship.
In the richness of divine revelation the multifaceted nature of the Church of the living God is revealed. Just as God may be described by His nature and by His attributes, the Church may be described by various words or terms.
The distinction between the Church militant and the Church triumphant is a common one. The first describes the worldwide Church facing its daily, spiritual battle and advancing gospel witness. The second designates all believers in heaven. Paul concluded that Christ "died for us, so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him." (1 Thessalonians 5:10) Membership in the Church triumphant is not yet complete. It will never be complete until the last believer enters glory! "And now, brothers and sisters, I want you to know what will happen to the Christians who have died so you will not be full of sorrow like people who have no hope.
For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus comes, God will bring back with Jesus all the Christians who have died. I can tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not rise to meet Him ahead of those who are in their graves. For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the call of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, all the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with Him forever. So comfort and encourage each other with these words." (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)
What a beautiful picture of the Church triumphant!
Until that day, the Church militant here on earth is frequently referred to in Scripture as a FELLOWSHIP. The Greek word for this fellowship is KOINONIA. Luke described the earliest days of the Church with these words: "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship [KOINONIA], to the breaking of bread and to prayer." (Acts 2:42) Here we have a succinct description of the form and function of the primitive Church. Acts 2 continues with a description of the life and witness of the KOINONIA: "Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he

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had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their numbers, daily those who were being saved." (Acts 2:43-47)
In the Scriptures, the Church is also likened to a household of faith.
Paul instructed young Timothy with these words: "Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that, if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household." (1 Timothy 3:14-15) Citing the need for purity and holiness, Paul referred to items in a large house as useful or useless, noble or ignoble (2 Timothy 2:20-21). The apostle's exhortation to do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers, attests to this household imagery (Galatians 6:10). "So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. We are His house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus Himself. We who believe are carefully joined together, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through Him you Gentiles are also joined together as part of this dwelling where God lives by His Spirit." (Ephesians 2:19-22)
The New Testament also portrays the Church as the BRIDE OF CHRIST. Just as a groom loves his bride, so Christ loves us; and just as a bride loves her husband, so the Church is to love Christ. In Paul's letter to the Corinthian believers, he expressed his godly jealousy over their lack of fidelity. He wrote, "I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you a pure virgin to Him." (2 Corinthians 11:2)
Other metaphors or descriptions of the Church describe unique facets of Christ's Church, the jewel of God’s creation. These include the temple of the Holy Spirit, the pillar and ground of truth, the city of God or the heavenly Jerusalem, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a mystery and a vineyard.
We come to faith in trusting in Jesus Christ as our Savior who gave His life as the sacrifice for our sins. We obediently follow His command to be baptized in water. He makes us a part of the Church, His Body, and we have the joy of fellowship and worship together as the community of believers!
It is my prayer that you have trusted Christ as your Savior and that you become a functioning and ministering member of His Church.