The Church is the Body
Clarify, Unify, Glorify • Sermon • Submitted
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ME: Intro
ME: Intro
As you may know,
I enjoy myself a good Marvel movie.
Most recently, Disney+ has released Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,
Which does a fantastic job at memorializing Chadwick Boseman,
The actor who played Black Panther,
Who sadly passed away before they could finish this sequel.
If you are like me,
And you never really read the comics,
Then the Marvel movies are the only introduction we really have to these super heroes.
So, the first Black Panther movie was how I learned about the Black Panther.
And I really admired this character.
If you haven’t seen it,
A quick synopsis is that the Black Panther is the king of the nation Wakanda.
Wakanda has what is believed to be the world’s only source of this powerful substance called vibranium.
Vibranium gives them advances in technology from medical advancement to military weapons.
But out of concern over the destruction that other nations might cause to obtain vibranium from Wakanda,
They hide it from the rest of the world.
So, the Black Panther movie is about King T’Challa,
The Black Panther,
Becoming king of Wakanda after his father’s passing.
Initially, he tries to maintain Wakanda’s secret.
But realizes how much they can help the world with their vibranium technology.
So, in the very last scene in the movie,
Slide
King T’Challa stands before the United Nations and says this,
“Wakanda will no longer watch from the shadows. We can not. We must not. We will work to be an example of how we, as brothers and sisters on this earth, should treat each other. Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe.”
Now, T’Challa was referring to the entire world.
But I couldn’t help but hear this and think of how applicable this is to the church.
Slide
No part of the church can watch from the shadows.
We can not.
We must not.
We must work to be an example of how we, brothers and sisters of Christ,
Should treat each other.
Now more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence.
But we know the truth,
More connects us than separates us.
And in times of crisis the wise build bridges,
While the foolish build barriers.
But then the very last line of his speech is where the church differs.
Because we do not need to find a way to look after one another.
God has shown us the way to look after one another,
Because we are one single body.
And that is what we are looking to clarify about membership this morning.
That is, where we get this idea of membership.
Slide
It comes from the NT teaching that the Church is the Body,
And one of the key passages that teaches this,
1 Corinthians 12:12-31.
If you spend enough time int he NT,
You will notice that there are a lot of metaphors.
The Apostle Paul talks about the eyes of our hearts being enlightened.
If you were to go down to the doctors office right now and get a scan of your heart,
I guarantee you that you will not find any eyes on your heart.
But metaphors like this,
Help us to understand deep and profound truths,
That very often,
Are beyond our feeble human capacity.
Therefore, when the NT talks about the church and its members,
The metaphors climb to a whole ‘nother level.
Peter calls us living stones that are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood.
That is three different metaphors in one sentence!
So, when we read about the church in the NT,
We find ourselves reading about one giant metaphor.
The NT says the church is the flock of God,
Last week we talked about the church being branches on a vine,
It also calls us a bride, a temple, God’s building, a people, exiles, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, salt of the earth, the elect, and the body.
On and on the metaphors go,
One after another after another.
So, in light of this, how can we summarize what the church is?
Slide
One pastor, Jonathan Leeman, gives a pretty good description:
“The assembly of believers that Christ instituted for the specific purpose of exercising the keys of the kingdom and making disciples through preaching and the ordinances.”
The one addition I would make is that Christ instituted the church by His blood.
This description already starts to help us see the value in the NT metaphors of the church.
Because although this is a true and good description.
It doesn’t fully express the activities that are made uniquely and wonderfully possible by being a part of this assembly.
The relationship building, the intimacy of this assembly is portrayed beautifully by the NT metaphors.
So, this description commissions and empowers us.
But the metaphors,
The bride, the temple, the family, and the body,
Put into practice the commission that comes from the description.
We live out our bride-ness, temple-ness, family-ness, and body-ness,
Through the structure of this assembly.
The one NT description of the church that is not a metaphor,
Is the Kingdom.
Christ’s Kingdom is really a kingdom.
The church, however, is not literally a bride in a dress,
A temple made of bricks,
A biologically related family,
Or a human body.
These are metaphorical descriptions of the church.
We are like a bride being made ready for a wedding,
Like a temple being built,
Like a family continuing to grow,
Like a royal priesthood being made holy,
And like a a body connected together.
That is why the Bible does not just present the church as an embassy of official citizens.
We are brothers and sisters,
Fellow members.
We belong to the church like members belong to a family,
Or members belong to a body.
So, the church is unlike anything on earth:
It is family-like, flock-like, and body- like.
This is why it is so hard to fully describe this entity.
Each metaphor teaches us something different about what the church and its members are like.
To say the church is a family is to express the relational intimacy and shared identity.
To say the church is the temple is to say that God specially identifies with us and dwells with us.
The vine and the branches we looked at last week communicates our dependence on Jesus and His Word.
And to say the church is a body also communicates our dependence on one another and the diversity of our roles.
Our human brains need to borrow these different images to characterize the relationships within the church.
It is truly amazing!
So, when we talk about church membership,
We often do not talk about it in the way it is portrayed in the Bible.
The Bible talks about membership in a rich and complex way,
Expressing how believers live out our unity in local churches.
There is nothing on earth like the church.
And we need these images,
All of them.
We are clarifying specifically this morning on the body metaphor,
But understand as we do,
This does not lessen the importance of any other metaphor.
We are no more the body of Christ than we are the people of God.
So, we must put into practice all of these metaphors.
We do not just float around the fact that we are the family, the temple, the people, or the body.
We put them into practice right here in our local body of FBC Afton.
Yes, we are family with every other believer in the world,
But we have this greater intimacy as brothers and sisters right here in Afton.
The body of Christ extends all around the world,
But we live as the body right here in Afton.
One of us get to be the mouth,
One of us the arm,
One of us the lungs,
And so on.
This means we need all of these metaphors to describe our body here in Afton.
Because right here at FBC Afton, we have the people of God,
The temple of the Spirit,
And the body of Christ.
It is not like we are just an arm or just an ankle.
We are Christ’s body.
Slide
So, let us look at our outline for Paul’s description of the body in 1 Cor. 12.
Unity of the Body (vs. 12-13)
Diversity of the Body (vs. 14-26)
Gifts of the Body (vs. 27-31)
We need a body of Christ to be the body of Christ.
The background of 1 Corinthians is that it was a community letter Paul wrote to exhort and instruct the church regarding some specific issues in the church.
WE: Unity of the Body (vs. 12-13)
WE: Unity of the Body (vs. 12-13)
In ch. 12, Paul illustrates the local presence of the body of Christ,
Because he is addressing a local church in Corinth,
Telling them that they are the body of Christ,
That individually they are members of the Spirit.
At the beginning of this chapter,
Paul emphasizes the great diversity of gifts given to the people of God by the Holy Spirit.
Slide
Then, Paul begins using the metaphor of the many parts that make up a body in vs. 12.
Saying, these many parts are the diversity that contributes to the essential oneness of the church.
Diversity in the church is the essence of the life of the church.
The church is not have this monotonous uniform nature.
No, it is a living organism with each member exercising in its own uniquely gifted way.
And being a member is not referring to a club status.
The word member here literally means a part of a living organism.
So, members of the church are parts of one body.
But not just any body,
Christ’s body.
This expresses the unity between Christ and the church.
Look at this verse,
We would expect Paul to say that the human body is one,
Like it is with the church.
But instead he says the human body is one,
Like it is with Christ.
This is one of the most distinctive and significant teachings of Paul.
The body of Christ is explicitly referenced 42 times in the NT.
He began anticipating this fundamental lesson back in the first chapter of Corinthians,
Where he rhetorically asked if Christ is divided.
Now, he returns to answer that question by saying,
Just as a physical body is made up of many members,
Yet is still one.
The church,
Is the body of Christ,
Made up of many members,
Yet is still one.
And because the body of Christ is one,
It cannot be divided.
Slide
Rom 12:5 says the same thing,
so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
The Lord’s Supper expresses this truth as well.
Paul was talking about this back in ch. 10,
Asking if breaking the bread is not participation in the body of Christ?
Slide
Then explaining in 1 Cor. 10:17,
Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
This emphasis on oneness through Christ’s body was especially vital for the early church,
Because by virtue of Christ,
Jews and Gentiles,
Two fiercely divided groups,
Are now one body.
Slide
Paul says it this way in Eph. 3:6,
This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
So, those who trust in Jesus Christ,
Regardless of whatever divisions may exist,
Become united as members of Christ’s body,
Breaking the bread of the Lord’s Supper together in remembrance of Christ,
Who is head over all things to the church,
Filling all His members with the fullness of Him.
This means, both the sheer existence,
And the ongoing growth of the church,
Comes as a result of the unity established by Christ’s broken body,
And through the Spirit whom dwells in the body.
Slide
After stating that the local church in Corinth is Christ’s body in vs. 12,
Paul confirms this for the universal church by including himself in vs. 13.
He is showing how it is through the one Spirit of God,
That individual believers become one body of Christ.
And just as he did in Ephesians,
He once again shows how our human divisions do not stop this,
Whether Jew or Greek,
Slave or free,
All believers are baptized into one body,
And all are given one Spirit to drink.
But when Paul says all were baptized into one body,
Is he saying that believers do not become a part of Christ’s body until they are baptized in water?
Let me be cautious as I explain this,
But no.
That is not what Paul is saying.
He is referring to the baptism of the Spirit,
Which happens at conversion.
Paul’s mention that all were made to drink of one Spirit reveals the fact that he is talking about baptism of the Spirit.
Every believer is baptized in the Spirit,
It is not some additional thing that we do,
God is the one who baptized believers with the Spirit.
But Jesus teaches us to symbolize the Spirit baptism with water baptism.
Water baptism is an outward act that symbolizes an inward spiritual reality.
The body being baptized in the water represents the soul being baptized in the Spirit.
So, when we place our faith in Christ,
We become members of His Spirit-baptized body,
Outwardly displayed with the visible sign of water baptism.
Being baptized with the Spirit means we are indwelled with the Spirit.
He immerses and saturates us.
And the Spirit is the one who joins and knits all of us who are in Christ together as one.
This is true for the universal church.
But the universal church is present in the local church.
We are an outpost of the universal church.
Throughout this chapter,
Paul leans back and forth in his address to the local church,
And his address to the universal church.
Because the local church should embody what the final church will look like when Jesus gathers us all up.
Therefore, we do make baptism a requirement of membership in the body of FBC Afton.
Because we believe Jesus commands us to do it,
To represent the Spirit baptism that is required for membership into His body.
Baptism stresses the union of all members with Christ.
Notice how Paul repeatedly uses the word, “all.”
All members, he says,
Have been baptized into Christ’s body,
And therefore,
All have tasted God’s deliverance by drinking of one Spirit.
Back in ch. 10,
Paul similarly uses the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper,
To compare the church to God’s OT people of Israel.
He warns against finding false comfort from participating in the Lord’s Supper.
Highlighting how Israel experienced God-given food and drink.
He was saying that the Spirit provided the food and drink for Israel.
So, in the NT, the Holy Spirit makes us members of Christ’s body.
Not the sacrament of baptism,
Not participating in the Lord’s Supper.
We do these things, yes,
But we do these things because the Spirit is in us,
Not to get the Spirit in us.
But even with the Spirit,
This present condition is not our final state.
God promises a future where we will be fully conformed to the Spirit.
This is true for us and all of creation.
Romans 8 talks about how creation is like a mother groaning in labor pains.
Longing for the promise to be fulfilled.
Likewise, we long to be fully conformed to the Spirit.
Until then,
We have been given the Holy Spirit,
Almost like a spiritual down payment, if you will,
Which will be fully consummated after our resurrection in Christ.
Thus, the Christian life entails a patient hope-filled waiting for Christ to bring about that consummation for all of creation.
This is why the Bible calls Christ our redeemer and our deliverer,
By His death and resurrection.
So, going back to Paul’s point about how we are baptised into Christ’s one body.
This means the unity of baptized believers is established by Christ,
And believers are to live up to this reality.
In other words, there is an ethical implication to being Christ’s body.
Our conduct must conform to the reality that we are His body.
This is especially hard for us,
Because we foster a fiercely independent identity in our culture.
But being the body of Christ is and incredibly corporate identity.
It signifies an interdependent and interconnected nature among members.
As members of Christ’s body,
We must remember our corporate identity of Christ,
And our ethical responsibility toward the world that comes with it.
The baseline responsibility Paul includes here,
Are the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
These are the signs that we are God’s people,
That we are Christ’s body.
These signs signify our continued communion with Christ.
Slide
As Paul said about the Lord’s Supper back in 1 Cor. 10:17,
Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
Our membership in the local body,
Presents the picture of that future consummated body.
Jesus wants His church,
And our membership in it to show.
And we cannot fulfill this responsibility,
Including the responsibility of the sacraments,
Without the local body.
We need a body of Christ to be the body of Christ.
How can we fulfill Jesus’s command to love one another,
To bear one another’s burdens,
To use whatever gift we have to serve others,
Without others?
We obey these commands through our membership in the local church.
If a person claimed to be righteous in Christ,
But never pursued righteousness,
We would think that person was deceived and we would urge repentance.
Because Scripture is clear that those who have been given Christ’s righteousness pursue righteousness.
The same is true regarding membership to the body.
How would we respond to a person who claims to belong to the body of Christ,
But never commits to a body of Christ?
We should think that person is deceived and urge them to repent.
Christ’s body will fully gather in glory.
GOD: Diversity of the Body (vs. 14-26)
GOD: Diversity of the Body (vs. 14-26)
But amazingly, we can find imperfect expressions of that right now in the local church.
There is nothing on earth like the local church!
The body is not just about this unity,
The glory of the body is displayed through the diversity of the body,
Slide
Which Paul affirms in vs. 14-26.
Unity is not just one member,
It is the unification of many members.
Paul was addressing some real disunity in the local church of Corinth.
The root of this disunity seems to be from their failure to properly acknowledge the diversity of the body.
More specifically,
Some members were looking down on others,
Causing this perception that the body did not need some members.
This is why the metaphor of the human body is so corrective here.
But each person is an individual member that makes up Christ’s body.
And all parts of the body must work together for the body to function properly.
In vs. 15-16,
He personifies body parts to express how absurd it is to see certain members as not needed.
The Corinthians were treating the more public or more showy gifts as more important.
So, Paul highlights how the foot is one equal part,
Just as the hand is one equal part,
As the ear is one equal part,
And the eye is one equal part.
Paul is saying to picture a human body in your mind,
Now picture reducing that body down to just one member.
It would be like a Mr. Potato Head with no attachments.
Not only is that picture weird,
But it is pretty much useless.
Because it would not be a body.
It would be a potato.
Each unique member of the body is necessary for a complete body.
Hearing and seeing and smelling an walking are needed functions of a body.
Likewise, each member of Christ’s body is necessary for a complete body.
Slide
This diversity is no accident.
God is sovereign over this diversity.
Vs. 18 shows that He arranges the members of the body as He wants.
Therefore, if certain gifts are being treated as not needed,
Then God’s authority to distribute the gifts is being questioned.
Unity is not uniformity.
True unity does not squelch diversity,
It fosters it.
The body of Christ balances unity through diversity.
Paul’s point is that diversity is essential to the very being of the body.
Without many members,
There would be no body at all,
It would be a potato.
Slide
To make this point,
Paul asks in vs. 19,
If the body were all the same parts,
Then, where would the body be?
Yes, he says,
The body has many parts,
Different parts,
Unique parts,
But all the parts are still together,
One body.
This encapsulates our individual identities enfolded into our corporate identity as the body of Christ.
Paul powerfully counters the misperception in Corinth in vs. 21,
Showing how the members of the church,
With every diverse gift,
Are mutually dependent,
Just like the parts of a body.
Just like the eye needs the hand,
And the head needs the feet,
Every member of Christ’s body needs one another.
You are needed.
Slide
But in the Corinthian church,
It seemed there were some who had this sense of spiritual superiority,
Which manifested itself into some sort of disdain toward those who were deemed weaker or less honorable.
There were spiritually arrogant members who were devaluing certain gifts of other members.
So, Paul addresses this problem head on in vs. 22-23,
Saying that they could not be more wrong.
The parts that are considered less honorable,
Are actually bestowed with even greater honor.
Slide
How so?
Well, Paul continues to compare how on the human body,
We clothe the unrespectable,
Or the private areas,
Of the body.
So, by clothing the less honorable parts,
We are showing them greater respect.
Likewise, Paul is saying,
God has arranged the body of Christ in such a way,
That the less honorable members are shown greater honor.
Which really should not be a surprise.
Jesus clearly taught that humility is the pinnacle of core values in the kingdom of God.
In the church,
The members who may seem more gifted are just as dependent on every other member,
Just as every member is dependent on them.
Every member is a fellow member.
God’s purpose in having this point driven home is that there would be no division in the body.
Division is alienating.
In this context,
It is the product of either jealousy or scorn.
Instead of this jealousy motivated division,
Paul says that members must have shared concern for one another.
This is the opposite of division.
God arranged the human body in such a way,
That the members of the body are concerned about the welfare of other members.
This is God’s desire for His church as well.
And when this happens,
The suffering of one member gets shared by all members.
And the honor that one member receives,
Brings joy to all members.
YOU: Gifts of the Body (vs. 27-31)
YOU: Gifts of the Body (vs. 27-31)
Since every member is a part of Christ’s body,
No one member is self-sufficient.
As we have seen from this chapter,
The description of the human body is applicable to the church.
Slide
In vs. 28-31,
Paul lists eight kinds of members of the church.
But he is not just talking about the Corinthian church,
He is talking about all believers everywhere from all time.
These eight kinds of members are designated by the gifts that God appoints them with.
This emphasis means no one appoints themselves with their own gifts.
The appointments are God’s privilege alone.
This list is very similar but also still different from the list in vs. 8-10.
So, these two lists in the same chapter suggests that Paul’s point is not to give an exhaustive list of gifts.
But with the list he does give,
He gives us a glimpse of the priority of roles during the early church era.
He starts with apostles and prophets.
It is likely not a coincidence that he also refers to the apostles and prophets as the foundation upon which Christ built the church in Eph. 2:20.
But an apostle in a general sense refers to a messenger whom was sent by another.
Formally, it refers to the disciples Jesus directly commissioned to spread the gospel and build the church.
The result of this direct commission was the backing of Christ’s authority.
This gift was limited to the first century alone.
And this is huge,
Because no church would have ever been founded apart from Christ’s appointed apostles.
Prophets refers to those who spoke under the immediate inspiration of the Spirit.
They were God’s primary instrument of His revelation.
The function of a prophet is similar to present-day preaching,
But certainly not the exact same.
Because as the NT was written and circulated,
The need for apostles and prophets were not longer necessary.
So, some argue,
These specific offices have ceased.
After the apostles and prophets,
Paul adds the next category of teachers.
Teachers give instruction from the Scriptures,
They do not make new revelations.
Rather, they must impress the truth on the minds of others,
And apply to life the truth that has been revealed.
So, being a teacher is not just about instructing,
It is inseparable from the way they live their life.
The next gifts Paul lists are miracles, gifts of healing, helping, and administration.
Helpers are those who are specially gifted to render assistance to others.
This could be the poor, the sick, or the discouraged.
Administrators are also translated as leaders,
Because they are the ones who direct the affairs of the church.
What is interesting about this list,
Is the fact that the gifts of helping and administrating,
Occur nowhere else in the entire NT.
As a result, many have concluded that Paul likely sees these as the same gift as acts of mercy.
The final gift mentioned is the gift of various kinds of tongues,
Which has been subject of much…discussion,
Throughout the history of the church.
Going back to when we were first introduced to this gift at Pentecost in Acts 2,
The gift of tongues is speaking in a language that you have not learned through natural means.
This is done to present the gospel to those who speak that language.
Slide
Paul reaches the climax of his argument in vs. 29-30 with a series of rhetorical questions.
His point is simply that we should not expect everyone to have the same gifts.
Because God apportioned the different gifts according to His will.
Nor should we expect any one person to have all the gifts.
Then, in vs. 31, Paul delivers a hotly debated sentence, saying,
Earnestly desire the higher gifts.
A person cannot have every gift,
But Paul does say not only is it appropriate,
But that a person should be ambitious to acquire the higher gifts.
Some believe he is talking about the spiritual gifts he lists first in vs. 28,
Which are seen as the more useful gifts.
If this were the case,
Then some gifts would have greater usefulness in the body.
However, it is clearly a transition point in his letter.
Because immediately after saying this,
He goes into his discussion of love in ch. 13.
So, Paul is anticipating the point he emphasizes in ch. 14,
That the direct purpose of these gifts is to build up the body.
But before Paul gets to that point,
He points out the essential condition required for the proper use of any gift,
Love!
This command to desire the higher gifts is the only command in this entire passage.
Paul is saying to be marked by this active interest, passion, and enthusiasm for the loving expression of gifts that build up the body.
Remember that the different gifts are distributed by the sovereign will of God,
So, desiring the greater gifts is desiring the loving expression of the gift God gives you.
The Corinthians were wrongly coveting the gifts of others,
So, Paul is correcting this by saying,
Members must earnestly desire the greater gifts.
Then, Paul introduces the theme of love,
Which is the most excellent way.
This is the most extreme adjective Paul can use.
It is a hyperbole to show how all gifts are pointless without love.
But the way of love is the extraordinarily overabundant way.
The relationship between love and exercising gifts is inseparable!
Love makes you a better Christian.
Love is how we use the greater gifts.
WE: Conc.
WE: Conc.
Slide
That is why the opening line to our mission statement at FBC Afton,
Is to love God and others.
But in order to love one another,
We need one another.
If you trust in Christ,
And consider yourself a member of His body.
But are withholding a commitment from becoming a member of FBC Afton.
I would ask you to reconsider making a commitment.
Because Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth is clear,
We need a body of Christ to be the body of Christ.
And Christ has given us this body here in Afton.
Pray.