Exodus, the second book of the Bible, tells the story of God’s miraculous deliverance of the Jews from 430 years of cruel Egyptian bondage. After enduring ten, destructive plagues all the Egyptians urged the people of Israel to get out of the land as quickly as possible. (Exodus 12:33)

 After their liberation the Jews were immediately instructed to build a transportable tent: The people must make a Tent for Me, so that I may live among them. (Exodus 25:8) When construction was complete, God moved in: The Glorious Presence of God filled The Dwelling. (Exodus 40:34) 

Then, God invited the people to be His neighbors. On each of the four sides of His dwelling, God instructed four of the twelve tribes to camp. (Number 2:2)

What was vaguely illustrated in Exodus was fulfilled in Jesus: The infinite Life of God took shape before us (1 John 1:2) and fixed His tent of flesh among us, and we saw His glory. (John 1:14) That’s why Jesus was called Immanuel, which means God is with us. (Matthew 1:22-23) After Jesus moved into the neighborhood (John 1:14) He chose twelve  disciples to be with Him (Mark 3:14) as He moved around in ministry. 

Imagine a wagon wheel. There are twelve spokes embedded in a central hub. The rim unifies the spokes in the hub. The twelve disciples (spokes) were connected to Jesus (hub). The Holy Spirit (outer rim) brought unity by keeping the dissimilar members in alignment. Note: there are no Lone Ranger followers of Jesus! If Peter wanted to follow Jesus, he had to relate to eleven other followers. You are together the body of Christ and individually are members of Him. (1 Corinthians 12:27)

You’ve just been introduced to the CHURCH as designed by Jesus! It’s a Community of Life; liberated persons connected to and camped around Jesus.

You are together the body of Christ, and individually you are members of Him. 
1 Corinthians 12:27