A Body Working together

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Have any of you ever been someplace that you ask yourself, why do I come here? You ever done that? Sometimes I’ll walk in the house and the kids are fighting and I’ll just look at Charla and say, why do I come here?

I remember years ago there was a store not too far from our house that I didn’t go into much because every time I’d go into it, it was dirty. The workers were not friendly at all. They never had the shelves stocked with stuff.

I just, I hated going in there. But it was close to the house, so every once in a while, maybe once a year or so, I’d think to myself, I could run by there. I could try it again.

Maybe it’s different. And then I’d walk in and look around and say, why do I come here? Why do I do this?

For some people, that’s the perception they have in their minds of the church. Why would I go there? Why would I want to be a part of that?

What, what, that just doesn’t sound like anything that would be beneficial to me. And if the church is anything like the ideas that they sometimes have in their minds, then I can see why they think that. If the church is just some place to come and get yelled at from the pulpit and be judged on what you’re wearing or what you’re doing, if that’s your idea of church, then you really don’t want any part of that either.

but the apostle Paul in first Corinthians addresses some of the reason why church is so important not not just church is in the service but the church this body of believers that we’re part of he addresses why it’s so important we’re in the middle of a portion of first Corinthians that is dealing with spiritual gifts if if you’re new with us we’re we’re studying our way through 1 Corinthians piece by piece. And chapter 12, where we’re going to be today, is the beginning of about a three-chapter section that deals with spiritual gifts. But even as Paul is dealing with the subject of spiritual gifts, he comes back to this idea of the church as being the setting.

I don’t want to say the place because it’s not a physical location, but the church being the setting where our spiritual gifts are nurtured, where our spiritual gifts get strengthened, where we get to actually use and grow in and work out of our spiritual gifts. And so if you haven’t already, turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 12 this morning. 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

And we’re going to see some of what Paul says about the spiritual gifts and the way they work together in the church, which is one of the big reasons why we need the church, why we need each other, is the way these spiritual gifts work together. So if you would stand with me as we read together from God’s word, once you find it, 1 Corinthians chapter 12. If you don’t have your Bible or can’t find chapter 12, that’s all right.

It’ll be on the screen here for you. And we’re going to start in verse 12 this morning and go through verse 26. Paul writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are 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 we were all made to drink of one Spirit. But the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, Because I am not a hand, I am not part of the body, it is not for this reason any the less a part of this body.

And if the ear says, Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body, it is not for this reason any less a partof the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?

But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body just as he desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body.

And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. Or again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you. On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.

And those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor. And our less presentable members become much more presentable. Whereas our more presentable members have no need of it.

But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked. So that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. And if one suffers, all the members suffer with it.

If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. And you may be seated. So there are a lot of wrong ideas in our society of what the church is and what the church does and how the church functions.

And here Paul addresses some of that. By showing us what the church is supposed to do and what the church is supposed to be when it works correctly. Do we always work correctly?

No. No church does. even if we were to find the greatest church on earth.

And I’m a little biased. I think it might just be this one, but that’s just my opinion. Because I like y’all.

But if we were to find the greatest church in the world, even it would not function perfectly. And a lot of people have seen the imperfections of the church and they get turned off to that. And churches throughout the world have exhibited a lot of imperfections.

There’s a lot to complain about. But I think of it this way. just because somebody plays Mozart badly doesn’t mean I’m going to stop going to concerts or that I’m going to stop loving the music.

They have to find a different player. They have to find a different setting, maybe a different venue, but it doesn’t change the fact that there’s good there. And we have to understand that the church is a body.

That’s the way Paul describes it here. There are a lot of ways that the church is described in the New Testament. In this case, he talks about the church as a body.

It’s not a location. It’s not an organization. It’s not an activity.

When we start thinking about the church in those terms, our perception gets skewed really quickly. The church is not just a place that we come on Sundays or Wednesdays. And I say it, we all say it, I’m going down to the church.

Even though we know that this building is not the church, it might be the church building. It might be our meeting place. I do like that our Church of Christ friends put Church of Christ meets here, you know, on their signs.

That would be fitting. Central Baptist Church meets here, but this building is not Central Baptist Church. We know that, even though we use the terminology that way of saying, I’ll be at the church if you need me.

It’s not an organization. It’s not just a group of people who’ve come together for a common interest. Probably most people in this room are part of organizations. And it may be a tight-knit organization.

It may be a loose organization, but you never go to meetings. Do they have meetings for AARP? I don’t think so.

I see commercials all the time. You can join AARP. It’s an organization you can be part of, but I don’t know how tightly invested somebody is into the organization.

You can be part of an organization, and it not necessarily affect your life in a major way. You can be part of an organization and jump in and jump out, and it not affect you. I’ve been parts of various organizations for various reasons, and sometimes they don’t do what they’re supposed to do, and I’ve left, and my life and my walk with God continued on just the way they were before.

One example comes to mind that when I was in college, I was very excited to join the pro-life group on campus. And I went to one meeting and joined and sat there for the next hour and realized this was a Catholic Protestant debate society. We’re going to get all six pro-lifers at OU together, right?

And we’re going to debate about whose church is more right on this issue. And I thought, yeah, that’s not what I signed up for. And I left the organization and life went on.

But if you jump in and out of the church, it does have an effect on your walk. It’s not just an activity. It’s not something we do because we’re bored on a Sunday morning and there’s nothing else to do.

See, we look at the first few verses here, this section, and Paul tells us what the church is. It is a body. He compares it with a body.

And he even calls us the body of Christ in verse 12. For even the body, as the body is one and yet it has many members, and all are the members of the body. Though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. He’s telling us that we’re the body of Christ. And I’m not saying that to the exclusion of the church down the street or the church down the street or the church across town.

We can be the body of Christ and they can be the body of Christ and we’re all part of the body of Christ. But here where we gather and where we serve together, we are the body of Christ. And the Lord has taken this member from over here and this member from over here and this member from over here and brought our unique giftings and the unique ways that he’s made us. And he puts it together so that ministry gets accomplished and we get to be the hands and feet of Jesus where we serve. And we look at verses 13 and 14 and we see that we share a common purpose because we’ve been formed into one body in Christ by the Holy Spirit.

This goes back to what we were talking about last week, where people were being brought from various backgrounds, that they really had nothing in common, but what they did have in common was Jesus Christ, and then being assembled by the same Holy Spirit. Even as they came together, they had different gifts. And he said, rather than rank the gifts, rather than treat some gifts like they matter and some like they don’t matter, recognize that whether it’s a gift you think is important or not, what you would call the important gifts and what you would call the unimportant gifts are all the outworking of the same Holy Spirit.

Well, we’ve been brought together by the Holy Spirit, regardless of our background. He says, whether we’re Jews or Greeks, whether we’re slaves or free, we’ve been all made to drink of one spirit. We’ve been all brought together as the body of Christ. And the church is more than just the one member, but many.

It takes many of us with many different gifts and many different skills and many different perspectives to make the ministry work. I told you last week, if you’re sitting there and thinking, I don’t have anything to contribute. I can’t do anything.

What I have to offer is not important. I told you, I wanted you to understand that. That idea is not biblical. That idea is a lie.

That idea is a lie from Satan who wants to keep you on the sidelines. If you have trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, the Holy Spirit of God lives inside of you and he has given you gifts so that those gifts can be used for the kingdom. And anytime you step up and want to do ministry, your church is strengthened by it and the kingdom is strengthened by it.

You absolutely do have something to contribute. And don’t compare yourself to somebody else and say, well, I can’t serve because I’m not like them. Verse 14 says it takes many members to make the church, not just one kind of person in a bunch of different bodies.

And so God takes all of these people. God takes all of us, and he brings the church together so that we can work together for his glory. We don’t come together just to have something to do on the weekends.

We don’t come together to put on a show. We don’t come together so we can run programs for the sake of running programs. We come together so we can work together for his glory. And the fact that we’re different from somebody else, the fact that we have these different spiritual gifts or that we serve in different ministries doesn’t mean that we’re any less a part of the body.

And if you’re saying, I heard so much of this last week. Good. Paul repeats himself over and over through these three chapters, I think because it is so hard to get it through our minds, our tendency.

My tendency is to say, well, I’m not as good at this as that guy, so I can’t do anything. And Paul repeats it over and over because just like with our children, we don’t tell them to do something just once. I told them to do something once and they remembered from then on out to do it.

I would think something was amiss. They’ve done something. Now we have to tell them over and over and over and God has to tell us sometimes over and over and over.

So if you’re thinking, well, I’ve heard this before. Yes, you have. And so have I.

And we’re going to continue to hear it until we get through the portion of God’s word that deals with it. And Paul thinks we’ve gotten it enough. But the fact that we serve in different ways doesn’t mean that we’re any less part of the body.

Look at verse 15. If the foot says, because I’m not a hand, I’m not a part of the body. Does that make it not part of the body?

If your foot suddenly had a mind of its own and said, oh, I don’t matter because I’m not a hand. Just mechanically speaking, the hand is way cooler than the foot, right? I mean, the hand can do this.

The hand can grab stuff. The hand can cook. The hand can throw a ball.

The hand can play music. The hand can do all sorts of things. Unless you’re just really super talented, the foot doesn’t normally do those things.

I’m sure if you go home on YouTube, there’s some guy playing the cello with his feet. Okay, he’s the outlier. If you find that guy.

If he’s making omelets with his feet, you want to pass on that one. I’m not eating that. But the hand just legitimately by itself can do incredible things.

Has the opposable thumb. It’s just an incredible device that God has given us. So that means the foot doesn’t matter, right?

Well, it seems not to matter because it’s not the hand until the hand is flopping around on the ground because it can’t stand up. When the body can’t stand up because there’s no foot there, then we recognize the value of the foot. And if the foot says, well, I’m not a part of the body because I’m not as important as the hand, it doesn’t just suddenly pop off like a champagne cork, does it?

It’s still attached. It’s still part of the body whether it thinks it is or not. And that’s what Paul’s wanting us to understand.

If we compare ourselves to somebody who’s serving in an incredible way and say, well, I’m not important. I’m not really part of the body. Paul said, no, you aren’t.

Just your perception that I don’t fit here doesn’t change that fact. You know, we can say all sorts of things that aren’t in keeping with reality, and it doesn’t change reality. We look at verse 16, and he gives us another example.

If the ear says, because I’m not an eye, I’m not part of the body, it is not for any reason, it is not for this reason any less a part of the body. Our ears are amazing. Do you know the tiniest bones in your body are in your ear?

The three tiniest bones, I think they’re called the hammer, the anvil, and the stirrups. They went really scientific with those names. But three tiny little bones, and they attach to a membrane called the eardrum that vibrates, and there are nerves attached.

I’m being super scientific. I should have Brother Jack or somebody come explain this to us. But all of this vibrates the nerves that are attached and sends signals to the brain.

And it decodes those and senses sound. And on top of that, there are little tubes in your ears, microscopic things that detect changes in the fluid to help you stay balanced. The ears are incredible.

But as incredible as they are, the eyes are even more so. Your eyes adjust automatically to light. and they take in light and send it through layers of stuff.

And I told you, we’re being real scientific this morning. And sends it through the nerves and your brain takes this picture that’s upside down and decodes it and makes you able to see. And on top of that, there are these little microscopic things called rods and cones that help you see in dark and light and help you see color and just incredible things that God has designed.

The ear is amazing. I think the eye is even more amazing in the way it works. So you take something as amazing as the ear and it compares itself to the eye and says, well, I’m not valuable.

I’m not part of the body. The ears don’t just drop off. They’re still part of the body.

And you can have two people that are serving in amazing ways in the body of Christ and one compares themselves to the other and says, I can’t do what that guy does. Clearly, I’m not important here. And Paul says, no, you’re part of the body.

You’re no less part of the body. God put us together to work for the benefit of his church and for his glory. And the differences among us are just part of the design.

We go to verse 17, and it says, if the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If your whole body were just one big eye. And I think they’ve got a Pixar character that looks like that.

I should have put him up here. If your body was just one big eye. I wondered about those characters.

How do they hear anything? You’re just an eye. That’s absurd.

We know that an eye could not live on its own. It needs the other parts of the body. It needs the brain to run it.

It needs the heart to circulate blood. It needs the lungs to take in oxygen to the bloodstream. It needs a mechanism for feeding itself.

We know this. The eye can’t survive on its own. But some people at Corinth just wanted the church to be a big eye.

is let’s all just do what that one guy is doing. Sometimes we can look at it that way as well. Say, well, if I’m not doing what he’s doing or what she’s doing, I don’t matter here.

Or we can, even worse, say, if you’re not doing what I’m doing, you don’t matter here. But he says, if the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?

When we look at the body of Christ and we see that we all have different gifts and we all have different strengths and we have different backgrounds and different perspectives, different abilities, we could look at that and say, that’s just a mess. We’ve got to figure out a way to work around that. No, that’s not a defect.

That’s part of the design. That’s part of the strength of what God has brought together so that we’re not all doing the same thing. We’re hopefully working the same direction for the same purpose, but we’re each carrying out the function that God designed us for so that all of it gets done.

I say all the time that if everybody in this church was just exactly like me, there’s a lot of stuff that wouldn’t get done. Namely because there’s a lot of stuff that wouldn’t get noticed. And my wife could tell you how true that is.

There’s a lot of stuff that wouldn’t get done. But guess what? If the whole church were exactly like you, there’s a lot of stuff that wouldn’t get done.

Because we all have different strengths and different callings. And so we go to verse 18 and we see, he says, but now God has placed the members, each one of them in the body, just as he desired. So when you’re struggling with, do I really have anything to offer?

What can I contribute? Do I matter at all? I want you to think about that last little phrase there in verse 18.

Just as he desired. God has brought the members of the body together just as he desired instead of focusing on what somebody else is doing or instead of focusing on what you wish you could do or focusing on the things that you can’t do it’s important to trust that God has equipped you with the gifts you need to fulfill the calling he’s given to you you need to trust that God can do that I say that recognizing that I need to trust that God can do that because I get in that same boat sometimes and comparing and saying, I have nothing to contribute, I have nothing to offer. You know what?

Trust God. Trust God that he’ll give you the gifts that he has given you the gifts that he wants you to have for the calling he’s given you. And trust him to put you where he wants you in order to accomplish that.

And if God has brought you to Central Baptist Church, then he’s brought you to Central Baptist Church for a purpose. for you to work out those spiritual gifts. So God’s brought us together so that we can work together for his glory.

We can each accomplish some things, but we can accomplish more together than we can accomplish separately. And the church is important because we need each other. But why would you give up your Sunday morning to go to church, to go to a church service?

Why would you give up your time throughout the week to serve as part of this church? Why would you give up your valuable time to fellowship with other believers? This body is important because we need each other.

If any of us were the whole church, the church wouldn’t function. I know I’ve already hit on that point a little bit. But he says in verses 19 and 20, if they were all one member, where would the body be?

But now there are many members, but one body. If we were all the same, the body wouldn’t function. You have to have the eyes and the brain and the heart and the kidneys and the liver.

And there’s more than I can go for. But every part is important. Now, they say there are some parts you can live without, but they do something.

The appendix does something. We haven’t quite figured out what it is, but it does something. Without the parts of the body, the church wouldn’t function.

And we have to recognize that each part of the body is necessary to the proper function of the whole body. He talks about the less honorable parts. Now, that’s not Paul saying some parts of the body are less honorable.

That’s Paul speaking to the prejudices of the Corinthians, where they were looking around and saying, well, your job is a lot less important than my job. And boy, I wish I had his job because his job is way more important. And so they were categorizing the gifts and the ministries and saying, these are down here.

So when he’s talking about the less honorable parts, he’s talking about the ones the Corinthians looked down. Not that God said any were more valuable than any other. But we have to recognize that each part of the body is necessary to the proper function of the whole.

The eye cannot say to the hand, verse 21, I have no need of you. Or again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you. The eye does need the hand.

The head does need the feet in order for us to work the way we’re supposed to. And even the ones that the world would look down on, the people, the gifts, the ministries that the world would look down on, the ones he talks about in verses 22 through 24, they are vitally important to the body. The parts that if we saw them, we’d be creeped out.

Nobody wants to look at liver. Unless you’re one of those who likes to eat cow’s liver, that’s not what we’re talking about. nobody wants to nobody okay nobody wants to see the intestines I remember every time Charla had a c-section and they were taking stuff out she always wanted me to look and I said there’s enough scary things already going on in my head and that’s not something I can unsee I don’t want to see your intestines keep that in here okay?

I’ll look at you once you’re all sewn up again. Yes, I’m a little bit of a will. I’ll admit it.

I don’t want to look at that. Show me your hands. Show me your eyes.

All that’s great. I don’t want to see your innards. And yet those innards, as much as we don’t want to look at them, we don’t want to see them.

They are so vitally important. They did the same thing when Jojo had heart surgery. They didn’t close her up immediately because of the swelling.

They said, you want to look? No. You leave that little washcloth right there and if you take it off, I’m leaving the room.

I don’t know what everybody’s obsession was with trying to make me look at stuff. I don’t want to see that. I don’t want to see the heart.

I don’t want to see the intestines, but boy, I’m glad they’re there. Because how long would the body survive without the heart? Not long at all.

how long would the body survive without the liver not very long look at any of these parts how long would the body survive without them not very long so if you ever feel like you’re the the liver or the small intestine of the church as far as the role you play as far as the gifts you have to offer these aren’t anything that anybody thinks are important they’re absolutely necessary to the functioning of the whole body and the body works best when all the parts work together. So it’s really not about any part being more or less important than any others. It’s about what happens when we all fulfill the role that God has given us.

Verses 25 and 26 point to this. He says, so that there may be no division in the body. If you get hit by a car just in half your body, the other half of the body is going to feel fine, right?

No, we all recognize, you know, you just get hit from waist down, You’re going to feel it up here too. Because the whole body works together. There shouldn’t be division in the body.

But that the members have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

The goal here is for the parts of the body to each carry out the function God’s given them so that the whole body is healthier and functions the way it’s supposed to. And we’re supposed to care for one another. We’re supposed to strengthen one another.

We’re supposed to lift one another up. as part of the same body in Christ. And our goal in doing that is not just making sure the body works well, but making sure the body works well so that Christ is glorified and so that the gospel goes forward from us so that the gospel is spread here at home and abroad. And as the body of Christ works together, ministry gets done in ways that it cannot be done otherwise.

Because we have to keep in mind, it’s not just about how big is the part I play. it’s about the greater mission of making sure people have an opportunity to hear about the fact that Jesus Christ died to pay for their sins that we’re part of this body because of what Jesus did for us we’re not part of this body because we’re good people although looking out across this room I think you’re all pretty good people as far as I know plus there’s stuff I don’t know but in comparison to a holy God none of us are good people we’ve all broken God’s law we’ve all disobeyed him. The only reason we’re part of the body of Christ, the only reason that we get to serve him is because Jesus Christ died to pay for our sins and to wipe our slate clean so that we can have a relationship with the Father.

And then the Holy Spirit comes in and begins to change us and knits us together with the body of Christ and equips us for service. If you’re somebody who’s trusted Jesus as your Savior and you’re struggling with this question of what’s my gift? What’s my ministry, or maybe you know what your gift is, but you’re struggling with how to get started.

I would love to visit with you about that. I would love to try to encourage you so that you find what it is that God’s called you to do and find a way to get started. But if you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, that’s where it all starts.

Understanding that your sin has separated you from Holy God. Understanding that the only way for that sin to be erased and forgiven was for Jesus Christ to come and pay the ultimate penalty for it. And so he was nailed to the cross where he shed his blood and died to pay for your sin in full so you could be forgiven.

Then he rose again three days later and he offers forgiveness and eternal life as a free gift if you simply believe him and ask for it.

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