3: The Church Is A Living Body Series

We are continuing in one of the Bible’s most comprehensive pictures of the church, a picture of a church that will meet many of the deepest longings in our hearts for rich and deep relationships, but a joyful and effective church. And there is so much in it to build that it takes a while to do justice to it. But every theme is important.

Ephesians 4 starts out saying that the members of the church must be united. That’s so important. Disunity is poison.

Then Paul says the members of the church need to be different, even while they remain united, each expressing the spiritual gifts that God gives to each one. That’s so important because the church just can’t get the job done without every member making the ministry contributions that God has equipped them to give. And you can only grow so far as a spectator in the church. The real fun comes blessings come when you come down out of the stands and venture out onto the playing field, accept Jesus’ call to use your gifts and get into the game.

And we are now in a portion that you could call, ‘grow together.’ It draws a beautiful picture of the members of the church building each other up, finding God’s grace and power in their relationships as together they become so much more than they could ever be apart.

And I’m sure that some people are saying in their hearts, “Let’s move on. Help me with my kids today. Help me cope with my stress today.” But I hope you can see the big picture. Being the best church we can be is a wonderful gift for your kids. Being the best church we can be will be a wonderful support through your stress, today and every day.

Last week we looked at a construction image that Paul uses for the church. He said to build one another up, using a construction term. He pictures the church as a building, a temple in which God will be seen and experienced, made up of us, living stones.

But we are more than a static building, an institution. And Paul quickly switches to a different metaphor, one he uses many times. The church is also a living body. The church is a living body.

Have you ever been tempted to wish the church had more money, and to feel that if we only had enough money all our problems would be solved? Well, money is important, but it can never make a church. I remember hearing about a church in the Boston area that had incredible amounts of money, a huge endowment. That had an incredibly beautiful building, that spared no expense. If any repair was needed, there was no need for any member to lift a finger except to pick up the phone to call a professional repairman. They had the most polished choir you could imagine, with every singer a paid professional. Imagine the performances they could do! But the church was dying. The pews were empty. The money propped up a dying institution. There was no need for any normal human beings. There was no mission. The human connections dried up. Nobody wants to go to a church like that.

I remember hearing about another church. This one started about 49 years ago here in Oak Lawn, at Sward School. They didn’t have any building. When they started meeting they didn’t have any formal members. They had to start every program and ministry from scratch, often meeting in members’ living rooms and basements. But they were determined to worship God. They quickly learned to love each other. The Spirit of God worked in their hearts to build something that was alive, something that grew, something that has been a blessing for 49 years to who knows how many people, something that started out with the name, Garden Methodist Church, and is today this congregation, now called the First United Methodist Church of Oak Lawn. And I believe that the next 50 years can be even better than the first fifty.

The church is a living body. Would you please stand now for the reading of God’s word? Bob will read for us Ephesians 4:11-16, one of the most important texts for understanding how churches grow.

11 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14 We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love.