Acts: The Church is the Body of Christ | Josh Harrison
The Church Is the Body of Christ: Acts 1 and the Vision for Citizens Church
It’s easy to forget, amidst coffee and donuts and conversations with friends, why we gather as a church week after week. At Citizens Church of Orange County, we are in the beginning stages of planting not just another space for Bible study, but a church designed to shape generations, to bear witness to the transformative work of Jesus. As Josh launched a new sermon series on the Book of Acts, he reminded us that now is the time to reflect deeply on what a church truly is and what it means to call ourselves the Body of Christ.
Rediscovering Church: Vision and Conviction
As Josh Harrison shared, his own journey into church planting began with a kind of ignorance—years of ministry without clear understanding of what the Church is meant to be. When challenged about the vision for a new church, he realized the answers were not found in tradition, feeling, or even personal experience; rather, they must be sought in Scripture. Acts, the book chronicling the planting of the earliest church, stands as our guide.
And so, a pivotal question emerged: What did the first church believe at its core? Not just what did they do—for actions shift with context and culture—but what stirred their actions, what vision shaped every decision? Josh contends that our church, too, must be defined by vision-driven convictions, not simply slogans or programs.
Church Is Not Entertainment—It’s Participation
A subtle but critical distinction separates healthy churches from dying ones: the difference between church members and church builders. Too often, in established churches, the staff and pastors act while the people receive passively, coming “to be fed” rather than to feed others. But Acts paints a radically different picture. The people are the church. Pastors equip the saints, not entertain them. Every member is a builder, a shaper of the future, contributing unique gifts and perspectives to the body.
So, what convictions fueled the first church—and must fuel ours?
The Body of Christ: More than a Metaphor
Acts opens with the assertion that if the Gospel of Luke is about all Jesus began to do and teach, then Acts is about what Jesus continues to do and teach—through his church. The departure of Jesus in the first verses is not a vanishing, but a handing-off. The early church did not regard the “body of Christ” language as picturesque or symbolic, but as a literal spiritual reality: Jesus lives and acts in the world through us.
When the Spirit fills believers, the life of Jesus animates their bodies, minds, character, and actions. Paul said, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” The church behaves as Christ’s hands and feet because Christ lives in it.
Four Essentials for Living as the Body
How, then, did they do it? Josh draws out four essentials from Acts 1:
Certainty of the Risen Jesus: The church was built on eyewitness certainty of Jesus’ resurrection. If Christ did not rise, nothing else matters; if he did, everything does.
Vision of the Kingdom of God: The resurrection inaugurated God’s kingdom—a restored creation, not just an immaterial heaven. Churches are to be “kingdom outposts” where resurrection and transformation happen in real bodies, families, and communities.
Embracing a New Identity: Jesus called his followers not merely to witness, but to be witnesses—a new life, a new story, laid down and exchanged for Christ’s own.
Dependence on the Holy Spirit: Every act of witness and transformation happened only by the power of the Spirit. He reveals Jesus, empowers for courage and clarity, enables sacrifices, and births new life.
Four Key Lessons
Church is communal participation, not passive attendance. Each member is called to contribute, shape, and build alongside others, not merely consume.
The Body of Christ is a spiritual reality. The church exists not just as an organization, but as the extension of Christ himself in the world.
Everything hinges on the resurrection. Certainty of Jesus risen from the dead is the linchpin for faith, mission, and commitment.
The Holy Spirit enables mission and transformation. Without the Spirit’s presence and empowerment, the work of church—witness, healing, reconciliation—cannot happen.
In the end, Acts calls us to be more than a community with a compelling history or friendly gatherings. It invites us to live the life of Jesus in our bodies, as a Spirit-enabled people who will shape generations yet to come. Why not us? Why not now?
