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Christ, Our True Home — 10/7/2024 10:00 AM
Today's speaker is Sam Allberry, Associate Pastor at Immanuel Nashville, Nashville, TN. Pastor Allberry looks at what it means for us to be united with Christ. His text is Ephesians 1:3.
Notes
Pastor Sam Allberry from Immanuel Nashville church led today’s chapel and discussed what it means to have a union with God. He encouraged the chapel to take their walk with the Lord seriously and truly become one with Him. The outline for today was as follows:
Outline:
- What is "being in Christ"?
- What is it like to be in Christ?
- What does it mean to be in Christ?
What is being in Christ?
The phrase “Christian” is not the most commonly used terminology for a follower of Christ in the New Testament. Instead, the New Testament tells us to be “in Christ,” and this phrase is repeated throughout the Bible. We are not just His followers; we are one with Him. This is a special union where we are united with Christ.
What is it like to be in Christ?
The Bible gives us pictures of what it looks like to be in Christ. There are three pictures that we focused on in order to understand what having a union with Jesus looks like.
1. It’s like a branch connected to a tree. (John 15)
Think about a strong tree growing in your backyard. If a branch falls from that tree, what happens? The branch dies. This is what it is like for us to live a life without Jesus. When we fall from the Lord and detach, it leads to a fatal end. We draw all the spiritual life we have out of Jesus. He is the true vine, and it is vital for us to maintain a relationship with Him.
2. It’s like a limb connected to part of a body (Ephesians 4:16)
The Church is the body and Christ is the head. We come together in Christ, and we’re joined to Him. We don’t come to Jesus and do our own thing. He is the one who directs and leads us. This is why we need His life in us.
3. It’s like a spouse in marriage (1 Corinthians 6)
Our relationship with Jesus shows a picture of what marriage is to be. The oneness we have with Jesus shows the oneness we between husbands and wives.
Allberry explained this by saying, “If we don’t understand our relationship with Jesus in the right way, we may not understand marriage in the right way.”
When you marry someone, the situation of one person becomes the situation of the other person. Since our relationship with Jesus reflects this, we gain His righteousness, and He bears our sins. This is because we are one with Him.
All of these pictures show our closeness with Jesus. We are followers of Jesus, but that doesn’t mean He is a dot on the horizon that we can never catch up to. He says that He is with us until the end of the age, and this is how. He makes Himself one with us.
What does it mean to be in Christ?
Our union in Christ is the means through which we receive all of the spiritual blessings that God has for us. All of our hope is in Christ and our union with Him. We need to be in Him to ultimately get to where we want to be going.
We’re all looking for the perfect place. The real issue is not where you live physically, but where you live spiritually. In Him, we have everything. In Him, we have our perfect home.