The Body of Christ

1 Corinthians 12: 1-12

Suppose you have a piano, and somebody completely dismantles it.
All the screws are taken out, all the strings, all the felts, all the keys, and all these things
are piled up into a pile of wood and strings and metal.
You cannot say any longer, "There's a piano."
It isn't a piano.
It must be put together with all its pieces put where they belong to be a piano.

The church is not an aggregation of strings and metal; the church is a body of believers.
And when the Holy Spirit fits together in our particular place, and we make beautiful music.
God intends for us to fit together.

The 12th chapter of first Corinthians teaches us that it is the gifts of the Spirit
that makes us fit together.
There are several principles in 1 Corinthians 12 that will help us to live out our oneness in Christ.
First, we must accept our place in the body of Christ.

You are gifted to be you, and nobody else can fulfill your particular place.
As we read verses four and five, "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.
There are different kinds of service [for ministries], but the same Lord."

We can describe it as someone who has said that the Holy Spirit is like electricity.
Then, you could paraphrase these verses, "There are different kinds of appliances
-- refrigerators, irons, vacuum cleaners, posters, televisions, radios, electric lights,
but the same electrical power."

Notice that the gifts are for ministry -- that is, for helping your fellow Christians.
Also the gifts are for results.
God wants to use you.
God placed you into the body of Christ to serve the other members of the body.
And as the human body has many parts or members, so all the members function to make
a marvelous whole, or as verse seven says, "For the common good,"
or " For the common advantage."

Verse 11 says, "All these (gifts) are the work of one and the same Spirit;
and He gives them to each man, just as He determines."
So, we must accept our place in the body of Jesus Christ.

Secondly, we must perform our task.

Operate -- or we can say co-operate!
You know that the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle don't mean a thing until they are all put together.
With all of us put together, a wonderful miracle happens: the total result actually reveals
the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 12 says this clearly: "The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts …
so it is with Christ."
It doesn't say, "So it is with the church."
No, it is said of the church -- the body of Christ -- that when we are all put together by the Holy Spirit,
this represents and shows forth Jesus Christ!
That is just breathtaking!
It is phenomenal!

Perform your task.
Function within the body.
Don't rebel at your place in the body of Christ.
Look at verses 15 and 16.
If the fool should say, "Because I'm not a hand, I do not belong to the body."
It would not for that reason cease to be a part of the body.

And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body."
It would not for that reason cease to be a part of the body.

We must never be caught saying or thinking, "I don't amount to anything.
Why should I be part of a church?"
The feeling of inferiority is a sin against God's wisdom and His purpose.
That is a sin.
If you believe in Jesus, He has equipped you with all the wisdom of heaven
to take your place in the body.
And if you don't take your place, you have sinned against God.

If your foot should say, "I am so clumsy; I can't write like the hand, so I quit."
Then, you would be in trouble, wouldn't you?
If your ear should say, "I am not as complex as the eye, so I am through."
That would be a tragedy, wouldn't it?

Many Christians compare themselves with other Christians, and that is absolutely wrong,
Don't ever do that.
God never runs out of ideas, He doesn't stamp us out like cookies on a cookie sheet.
You are not like others and God didn't design you to be like others.
He likes what he made.

You can't say, "I quit!", and then pull away from the body.
That is self-amputation.
That is a mutilation of Christ.
That is crucifying Christ afresh!
You can't say, "I attend church says so I can slip in and slip out,
I don't want to get too close or too involved."

Got has equipped you to minister for the good of the body, for the advantage of everyone else.
To refuse to function, to refuse fellowship with others, to refuse to love others
is one of the great sins of the church today.

We can refuse in many ways.
We can say, "Well, I just don't feel comfortable with those kind of people."
Who said you should necessarily feel comfortable.
A little pain is inevitable in any relationship.
As you become more accustomed to being involved, your involvement will become
less painful and more pleasurable.

Or someone may say, "But I don't get anything out of it."
That doesn't have anything to do with it.
You are in the body to function: to give, to be, to fit, to belong.
If you start putting something in it, then you may get something out of it.

The Holy Spirit has especially equipped you to be a part of the body.
To reject that it is to say, "No!" to God.
As members of the body of Christ, we must give, and we must receive -- regularly,
patiently, and consistently.

The most obvious and vivid demonstration of our taking our place in the body is
our gathering together on the first day of every week.
We must come eager and ready to give and receive.
For others may come hungry and thirsting, suffering, and deeply wounded.
The way you sing a hymn, and the way you bow in prayer
-- everything you do or don't do will influence them for God or for evil.

What you do may cause someone not to want to attend your church anymore.
When I was a teenager, we had a group of teenagers who sat on the back row
and passed notes and whispered throughout the service.
One of my friends attended the service for the first time, and when I asked him
how he enjoyed the service, he said, "I didn't enjoy it at all f
or all I heard was whispering."
He never came back!

One way we can tell how much we love the Lord, and how much we really feel
that we are a part of the body, is by the way we enter into worship with God's people.

It is should be a two way street -- giving and receiving.
Wanting only to receive is not fellowship.
Not to function in the body of Christ is like going on a strike against God.
God will not tolerate that!

Another principle that will help us operate as the body of Christ together is
to allow others to function.

Look at verse 18 and the following: "But in fact God has arranged the parts of the body,
every one of them, just as He wanted them to be.
If they were all one part, where would the body be?
As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, ' I don't need you!'
And the head cannot say to the feet, ' I don't need you! ' "

You and I need all the others in the body, because verse 18 says, "God has arranged the parts."
Therefore, we must be willing to accept our limitations, so that others can perform their ministry to us!

You are something, but you are not everything!
That is difficult for some of us to admit, especially some pastors that I know.
They run in every direction trying to perform all the duties when they don't have the gifts
to do them.
In the meantime, there is someone sitting in the congregation, gifted to do just those things.

Some years ago, I became a pastor of a church where a handful of people served
on most of the committees and responsibilities of the church.
In the congregation were school teachers, nurses, physicians, community leaders,
owners of their own businesses, state leaders, managers of large corporations
who had nothing to do in that church.
It was our goal to see that everyone had something to do, and so we put a plan in motion
to see that everyone had a responsibility to serve in our church.
That changed the fellowship and the future growth of that congregation.

Be what you are, but don't try to be more than you are.
Don't take the privilege of functioning away from another member of your congregation.
Esteem others better than yourself.
The church is a place where we are dependent on each other, and we must learn to do that.
And we must trust others to serve.

I read of a church where a group of Christians were divided up in twos,
and one of the two was blindfolded while the other was to take him by the hand and lead him.
The blindfolded one simply had to trust the ability of the leader.
One who was blindfolded later said, "The first steps were agony.
But when I finally got to the place where I completely trusted him,
it was one of the greatest lessons I have ever learned."

To do nothing is the sin of waste.
To try to do everything is the sin of pride.
Naturally, we want to be independent -- that is a great quality.
But an independent attitude in the church can be destructive and divisive.

Cancer begins when a single cell goes astray and begins to multiply on its own.
What an analogy for the church.
The body of Christ is suffering from a malignancy in these days,
and that malignancy is called "independence".
Many of the cells of the body have decided to function independently.
Instead of contributing to the nourishment of the body, they are consuming it an inch at a time.
And the tragedy is that the independent spirit of these single cells is seen by many as a virtue.
God intended for us to depend on each other.

There is a strange, judgmental spirit which has cropped up in the athletic world of today.
In the past we would boo the umpire when we thought he made a wrong decision,
or boo an opposing player who showed poor sportsmanship.
Look how that has changed today.
It could be yesterday's hero who is out in right field, and happens to drop the ball.
It could be the player who was hitting .350 batting average. and now he's hitting only .200
-- and now he is striking out more.
Or it could be an athlete who has already won the gold was booed because he doesn't take
his extra jump in the olympics.
Everybody boos.

And now, that spirit has gotten into the church.
If one of our team members doesn't perform on cue, we express our disapproval; we "boo."
Even with many good things happening in our churches, there is still so much littleness.
Christians can get so critical -- about the hymns we sing; about the length of someone's hair …
When we do this, we're grieving the Holy Spirit of God.

Following isn't hard; any fool can do that.
But building up our brothers and sisters is a godly ministry.
God has put us here together.

Making fellowship happen is another principle.

Allow others to function -- yes; but more than that, we should aggressively help them to do it.
Get involved, talk together, get to learn about each other, rejoice together, suffer together,
plan together, and pray together,
There should be no division in the body, and all its parts should have equal concern
for each other.
If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.
If one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Now we are the body of Christ, and every one of us is part of that body.
In Acts 9, Paul was looking for Christians to harass and even to kill.
He had been dragging men, women, and children out of their houses -- nobody was exempt.
He was on his way to Damascus for this very purpose when Jesus Christ smote him,
and he fell to the ground.

Then Jesus said an astonishing thing: "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?"
Saul asked, "Who are you, Lord?"
Jesus answered, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting!"

Paul thought he had been persecuting Christians.
Now he learned that he had really been persecuting Christ Himself.

To speak viciously about a Christian brother or sister is to speak viciously about Christ Himself.
To ignore a Christian brother or sister is to ignore Christ Himself.
To smear a another Christian's reputation is to smear the reputation of Christ.
To make fun of or to ridicule another Christian is to ridicule Jesus Himself.

"Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is part of it."

Follow Paul right after his conversion and we see that Christ sent him to a disciple
named Ananias.
Christ wanted Paul to go and learn from an ordinary brother in Christ.
That was a good lesson.

You and I have two choices.
We can have a pre-Damascus road mentality -- judging, criticizing -- actually persecuting
the Lord Jesus.
Or we can submit ourselves to our brothers and sisters in Christ. and humbly receive service from them.

Notice the difference between these two frames of mind.
Repentance -- a fresh meeting with Jesus!
A deliberate humbling of ourselves saying as Paul said: "Lord, what would you have me to do?"

We Are One In The Spirit
"We are one in the Spirit
We are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit
We are one in the Lord

And we pray that all unity
May one day be restored
And they'll know we are Christians
By our love, By our love
Yes, they'll know we are Christians
By our love

We will walk with each other
We will walk hand in hand
We will walk with each other
We will walk hand in hand
And together we'll spread the news
That God is in our land

We will work with each other
We will work side by side
We will work with each other
We will work side by side
And we'll guard each man's dignity
And save each man's pride

All praise to the Father
From whom all things come
And all praise to Christ Jesus His only son
And all praise to the Spirit
Who makes us one

Make us one, Lord!
Make us one, Lord!"
-- Jason Upton

Sermon adapted from several sources by Dr. Harold L. White