Jesus told his disciples that he would be with his people always (Matthew 28:20). Not long after saying this he then ascended into heaven, which would seem to contradict his promise. On the contrary, Jesus ascended into heaven to fulfil this promise. Jesus, in the flesh, was not omnipresent; He couldn’t be everywhere all the time. So, he ascended into heaven to send the Holy Spirit. By the Holy Spirit, Jesus is indeed present everywhere in the lives of whoever has opened their hearts to him. In this way his ministry is not restricted to where one man can travel, but is multiplied all over the earth through his people. Here then is how the ministry of Jesus works. The Holy Spirit gathers people together in communities. These are churches. He then equips each person with certain gifts and roles so that each member of the community may be mutually strengthened and then together the community can be built up to become an expression of the ministry of Jesus. No one person can be all that Jesus wants to be in the world today. It is therefore impossible to serve the cause of Christ in isolation from the church. Paul refers to the church as ‘the body of Christ’ which means that to serve Jesus is to be a part of the body and to serve as part of a united effort. When each member of the church engages with what God wants to do corporately, and serves that cause with their own unique gifts, then we attain what Paul refers to here as “the whole measure of the fullness of Christ”.
Reflect on how you can become more engaged with your church community.
Read Ephesians 4:7-16
