Transcription
[Music] And the fact that we just recently heard a a a passage in Paul's writing in the same letter about the body, he probably has that in his mind. How closely linked we are to what we're doing at communion, to what the church is meant to be, how sacred, how unified, how it should produce fruits of redemption and grace.
But he shows us here that every Christian is a part of the body of Christ. You are a part of the incarnate God's body. Truly amazing to think about. That is what he gives us. You heard what Bill said at communion about who we were. And now he's saying, "You are the body of the Messiah. You are the body of the risen, glorified Son."
And so, as I said, some members, they didn't understand this or maybe they had forgotten this. And once again, they were feeling lesser. They were wishing that they were something else. They were they thought they were insignificant. If that's you, I want you to hear this. Every member is a part of the body of Christ. You have value. You are valuable. You are valued by God.
And in verses 12 to 14, which is what we had read this morning, as you see this usage of the one and the many. And so sometimes when we come into the church, we feel so individualistic. We we think so much of ourselves as separate from others. But he is wanting us to remind us that though we have these different gifts and we have different backgrounds, ultimately we have been called into this oneness.
And in verses 12 and 13, it says, "For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being 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 have all been made to drink into one Spirit."
This is showing us that every member is united in the body of Christ, regardless of background. I think of Galatians 3:28 where Paul says, "There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus." At the foot of the cross, we are all equal. We all have value, worth, and dignity. We all are beneficiaries and co-heirs, partakers of Christ. That is what he wants to get across for us this morning.
Don't ever think because of your giftedness, your shortcomings, whatever it is that you are wrestling with this morning, that you are not as good, or you're not as valuable, or loved by God. He is saying that every believer has received the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
And I just wanted to camp out on that for a moment because I think there's so much confusion around this concept of being baptized in the Holy Spirit. But if you notice in verse 13, it says, "By one Spirit we were all baptized." Now, in the same passage that we're reading this morning, you'll notice he says that not all of you have spoken in tongues and not all of you will speak in tongues. But there are some traditions that will teach that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is when you speak in tongues. So, if you've not spoken in tongues yet, you haven't been baptized in the Holy Spirit. That's not what this is saying.
Because we know in this passage that there are some that are saying, "I didn't get that gift." And what does he say in verse 13? "You all have been baptized into one Spirit. You have all been able to drink from this one Spirit." If you have placed your faith in Christ, you have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
I think of Matthew 3:11. It says John the Baptist says, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." There's a beautiful song that I've been listening to a lot recently that says the line, "Holy Spirit, would you pour your fire out like water on us?" That's what Jesus came to do. This was not for a select group of believers, his favorites, the ones who are really spiritual. He pours out his Holy Spirit, his fire like water on every believer, all those who trust in him.
In Romans 8:9, it says, "But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his." So he says identity in Christ is to have the Spirit. It is to be a partaker of the Holy Spirit.
So I want you to understand that you have been baptized. Just like when we see a physical baptism here, what happens? You get immersed in the water. It is saying that whenever you come to Christ, you have been immersed by the Spirit. That is what happens when we are baptized by the Spirit. We now belong fully to Christ. That's what it means. You have now been fully given to a new body, a new creation.
And now this is different, by the way, than the filling of the Holy Spirit. So might some maybe have heard of that. And that is an ongoing relationship, ongoing yielding to the Spirit where the Spirit will continue to sanctify us, make us more like Christ. He's he's conforming us into his image. But that is a big difference between some teaching saying the baptism of the Holy Spirit is for a specific group or maybe you're not even saved if you don't speak in tongues and get the baptism. It's very different. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is for all believers where we receive the Spirit and gifts, and these are a plurality of differences of gifts.
And so because of this, as he's making this point, then since every believer has been baptized in the Holy Spirit, that means we now all fully belong to Christ. That has to show us that no believer is insignificant or inferior. Every believer is indispensable.
And so I just want to read for you verses 15 and 16 and verses 21 to 22 where Paul says this. "If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,' is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,' is it therefore not of the body? And the eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you.' Nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.'"
See, what we're seeing in this passage is that it's showing us these different body parts as an analogy. And it's saying, "If you were like the hand or the foot of Christ, you wouldn't say that I'm not a part of the body because you're not one or the other." I'm sure that many of us see how precious our members are of our own body. You might use your feet to walk, right? You might use your hands to to feed yourself. But I'm sure that none of us would be very happy if I say, "Okay, well, give me your hands. You're not going to be able to use your hands anymore." I'm sure we wouldn't like that, would we? How much would I have to pay you just to have one of your fingers, just your pinky? How much would I have to pay you? You probably wouldn't take a dollar amount. Maybe maybe someone's like, "If you get really up there, maybe I'll give you the pinky or maybe the pinky toe or something." But but most of us would never. I could offer you so much money and you still wouldn't be willing to give up one member. That's what he's getting at here.
If you're an eye, you have a purpose. If you're an ear, you have a purpose. If if you're a hand, if you're the feet, you have a purpose. Even if you're one of the the private areas, it says the the ones that are not seen by the world as much, those still have purpose. We would not want to get rid of any of our members. That means you. We can't pay. There's nothing that we would take money-wise to lose you. We care about all of God's people, all of God's members.
And so, as we hear this calling and this constant refrain, the one and the many, Christians are the body of Christ. And so, what does that mean for us? Not only do we need to recognize our purpose, our place in the body of Christ. We need to to value every member, but that also means be the body of Christ. Don't just think, okay, I'm in the body and now I don't do anything. If you're the body of Christ, you have something to do. If you're the hands of Christ, serve. If you're the feet of Christ, go. If you're the mouth of Christ, speak. If you're the ears of Christ, listen. If you're the heart of Christ, love. We have a purpose.
If you are in the body, we are called to do things. We have so many Christians in this world that will come on a Sunday morning and do nothing else. The church is called to be the body, the hands and the feet. We are called to be something in this world that was never here before. The church is here now. Christ in us is here now. That is why it says you are to be my witnesses to the ends of the earth. How do they see Jesus? They see it through the body. The body is the tangible presence where we all have the Holy Spirit now as we walk through this world.
So Christians, we see we are the body of Christ. But then Paul doesn't stop there because he also wants to make it very clear as we're thinking about unity, being one in the body, we also see that unity does not mean uniformity. And we've got to be careful on this because as we go making disciples of the nations, as we are trying to bring people to know Christ, to receive the gospel, to experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit, making disciples isn't the same thing as making clones or copies of yourself.
When I'm trying to preach the gospel and as I'm trying to reach people, I'm not trying to make new Zachs. I don't want everyone to be like me. And I know that some of us would probably get really irritated if we hung out with just our own personality all the time, right? I know there's some people that they were they they have some people that they work with or some friends that they hang out with and they're describing all these attributes and they're like, "I know that's me. I know I'm describing exactly how I am to these people." But but that's how we can be sometimes. We don't want to make disciples of ourselves. We want to make disciples of Christ. And if we're making disciples of Christ, we're making a part of the body of Christ. Said, "If you make the body of Christ, you're going to have different members of the body." See, so we do not make clones of ourselves.
And in fact, difference uh differences are not the problem here. It's actually good to have differences. Actually where we can disagree and wrestle with some things. Division is the issue, not disagreement. There is a difference here. In fact, I would say some of my favorite conversations that I have and I know some of you have been partakers of these conversations where I will spend hours and we will differ, we'll disagree, we'll talk about things and like I said, I can have coffee and talk about theological matters where we differ on some of these lesser issues. Not that they're not important, but secondary, third rank issues. Those are my favorite conversations to have because I think what it does is it sparks our affection for one another if it's done in love and for the Lord and for his word.
I think of uh Proverbs 27:17. It says, "As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend." We need something that's different to sharpen us, to challenge us, to encourage us, to build us up, to help us where we lack. And in fact, God is a God of both unity and diversity. Have you ever thought about it like that? See, God creates the body and the body is made up of members. You know, he could have created the world a whole lot different. He could have made us sentient, you know, one molecule beings where we don't have all of these members where we just are just sentient and just or we could just be spiritual where we didn't even have a physical body. We know he's able to create spiritual beings. But he created us physical with body parts and membership. And so it's interesting that God in his creation, he does this. But even in God's divine nature, he is both united and diverse. We serve a God who is triune. Trinity means literally tri three, unity one. We serve a God who is one in being, three in person. a plurality of persons in one being, one divine nature. So even in God himself, we see unity and diversity.
And so what Paul is showing us here is that God, because of that, knowing the benefits of both these things of of unity but not uniformity where we are just trying to be every single person that we, you know, follow. But what we see is that God has given us different gifts so he can make us one. See, our differences is actually what unite us in a lot of ways. Now of course we are united around Christ, but some of our differences is what bring us together as one.
Think of it like this for a moment. Many of you or some of you at least probably have done a puzzle in your life. I know there's some people that like love the the thousand-piece puzzle. I am not that guy. I'm like I don't even like my kids' four-piece puzzles because I got to clean them up every single day. I don't like puzzles very much. But we know what a puzzle is like. You have one piece, it's a corner piece or you have another piece, it has more color on it. Uh some is the sky, some is the ground, some is the the the heart in the middle, maybe an animal, a person, right? A puzzle comes with all of these different pieces, but they fit together perfectly. And when they fit together, they show you something that one individual piece could never give you. That's the same thing when it comes to the body of Christ. We have this diverse group of people who give you a better picture of who Christ is. When we see one another doing the things of Christ, you get to see you get to see Christ in a unique way.
Or think of it like this. If you have a car, but you don't have the wheels, that's going to be a problem. You might have a pretty car, but you're not going to go anywhere. Or what if you don't have the engine? What if you have the engine, you have the the wheels, but you don't have the body? See, you need all of these things. And that's what it means is is that when we think of a puzzle pieces fitting together, we're seeing unity and diversity. When we see a car, parts working together in harmony, we see united in mission. That's what we are called to be like. That is what God is showing us in this passage.
And so, as we've looked in in in the past in verses 8 to 10, Paul gave us that spiritual gift list, right? And I told you to look through those. Well, in verse 28, he mentions some other gifts where I'll just read this. Verse 28, it says, "And God has appointed these in the church: First apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues."
So what this is showing us is that God has given us all of these different gifts. And I think you can kind of break these gifts into these different categories. You can think of gifts. There are gifts of wisdom. That would be gifts like you get the word of wisdom that we talked about or a word of knowledge or maybe have discernment of of the spirits. So that means that you or some individuals in the body have been given these unique gifts of wisdom to where they can either apply God's word faithfully, whether they have knowledge in which they can share it. Maybe they have the discernment where they can help us stay away from error and cling to what is true. Some of you have been gi uh been given gifts of wisdom.
Others have been given gifts of worship. You see in here faith, prophecy. We need some people that have a solid faith, a a steady confidence in the Lord, in his word, in his goodness, in his power. We need people in our worship to have that faith, to exercise that faith, to show us that faith. Likewise with prophecy, we need people who will boldly speak the word of God. They will faithfully proclaim what is right, what is true, what is beautiful, and they will convict those who are in rebellion against God.
So we have gifts of wisdom, gifts of worship. We have gifts of wonders that would be like the the the healing that would be um like um of some of these others like um the the tongues or interpretation. These are gifts like that where we see in the body being described in these lists. We see gifts of works that would be like the helps administration. We need people that can make sure that the lights stay on in a building that we have money that we can feed the poor because if you don't have people to help and to make sure that we are being responsible and organized, the ship's not going to sail. You can have all the parts, but if you don't have navigation, you're gonna have a problem.
So, what he's showing us through these different lists, and once again, this is not an exhaustive list. I think Paul is in is hinting here by not giving us a complete list ever. Every single one's a little bit different and some of them have um overlap is what he's showing us here is that these are just showing us types of the gifts. But all of them ultimately are meant to show unity and to edify one another. It's meant to build up the church, to build up the body of Christ.
And so we see that Christians then are the body of Christ. But unity, it does not mean uniformity. We are to unite in the body of Christ, work together, but we are supposed to celebrate our differences, the diversity of gifts that have been given.
And then this leads to the final thing that we have to remember as we're thinking about the unity and the diversity is that God has given us a sense of dependence for one another. Dependence is by design. See, God didn't just, you know, he didn't just accidentally, oh, you know what? They're all kind of depending on each other. That's kind of odd. No, God, he arranged the body by his wisdom. I've already mentioned this in the previous message, how the Spirit sovereignly willed certain gifts to certain individuals. But again, in verses 18 and 28, Paul keeps reemphasizing it, saying it's not us. We can pray for gifts. We can seek the the spiritual gifts, but ultimately the one who gives you the gifts, it's not your own doing. It's not your works, your wealth, your wisdom. the the way you receive a gift is because God says, "I want you to have that gift in his wisdom, his ways are greater."
In verse 18, it says, "But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as he pleased." And then, as I just read verse 28 a second ago, it says, "God has appointed these in the church." See, God is the one arranging these. And if you notice now as we've been talking about this diversity is in God's wisdom, he doesn't give any believer every gift. It's so important that you hear that because some of you are like reading this list and I know some people were joking about this like every list I or every gift I I read I'm like, "Yep, I got that one." The thing is, you don't. You don't have every gift.
I know there are some teachings out there, there are some denominations, some churches that are saying that every single gift is available to you, that you can't have every single gift. What does Paul say in this passage in verses 29 to 30? He says, "Are all apostles? Are you an apostle like Paul? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Does everyone come up here and teach every week? Are all workers of miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do you all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?" What Paul is saying here is obviously not. But there are teachings out there that say, "No, you can and should have every single spiritual gift." You know who has every single spiritual gift? Jesus. We are members of the body. Jesus is the head. It's Jesus's body here. So, we do not have every single gift.
And what that means is we have limits. We have limits in our wisdom. We have limits in our capabilities. And so, how do we be effective in the body is we depend on one another where we lack. There's humility in recognizing our limitations. And I'm reminding myself of this as well that there are so many things I cannot do and I need the help of others. You need others. God designed it to where we depend on one another.
And so when we do that, we can see like Hebrews 10:24-25. "And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching." Likewise, 1 Peter 4:10 and 11, it says, "As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen."
See, he's showing us here that independence in the body of Christ is an illusion. We just recently went out and witnessed and and did some outreach in the community. And one of the conversations with someone that we were praying with, he had said that he was a believer in Christ and that he loved what we were doing. And as we continued to talk with this individual, they expressed how they don't go to church. They expressed that they just don't really like those people and that they just can't connect with those people. They have too many issues. And I'm not saying he's wrong on all of those counts. We do have issues. We do have problems. We do have hypocrites. We do have people that struggle with sin in the body because the church is not a luxury cruise. It is a hospital for sinners. It is a place where we need God's grace. We recognize who we were apart from Christ. However, to say that you are a Christ follower and to say you hate his body is nonsensical. You can't love Christ and hate his body. You can't live in isolation as a Christian and think that you are honoring the body of Christ.
Because if you have been given gifts, once again, if you have the Spirit, you have a gift and you're saying, "But I'm not going to give it to those people." Or if you say, "I don't need their gifts." You're missing exactly what Paul is saying here. That's why the church is so important. Does it mean that if you're not in a church right now, you're not saved? No. But if you are saved, that means you want to be in church. That means you want to be around God's people. Cuz here's the thing. If you don't like being around God's people now, I got news flash, you're not going to like heaven. We're going to sing a little bit better. We're going to look a little bit better, but we're still going to be the body of Christ. And we need to depend on each other now.
And that's why in verses 20 uh verse 26, I love it. It says, "If one member suffers, we suffer. If one member rejoices, we rejoice." See, when we are dependent on one another, the whole body feels it. And if right now, if that's not you, if when we have members in this church who are suffering and you're not feeling it, maybe you're disconnected. If there's times where you see people are rejoicing because God has been doing something, like we just had a baptism recently. If you're not rejoicing in what God is doing in our body, in our community, you're disconnected. You have to be connected to the body. And that is how we thrive spiritually. That's what I think he's showing us that we thrive when we serve, when we love, and when we depend on one another, recognizing Christ as our head.
And so that is my encouragement for us this morning. Let us strive to do what Paul is saying here. Let us strive to be healthy communities that honor Christ, that embrace unity through diversity, and bear witness to the world.