Everyone Matters
1 Corinthians 12:12-27 January 27, 2019
[Please contact me at kerry.n.haynes@gmail.com for sermon outline in Word.]
The church today is messed up. We all know it. We’ve been in churches that had a wacky pastor, or wacky people, or both. We’ve been in churches that cared more about buildings and budgets than believers. We’ve been in churches that liked to fight publicly and gossip privately. The church is a mess.
Yet, no church is more a mess than the church Paul writes to in Corinth. If you ever feel bad about your church, just read 1 Corinthians; you’ll feel much better! Paul’s first letter, what we call 1 Corinthians, was full of advice on how to get back on track as a church. His second letter, what we call 2 Corinthians, showed that they had listened to him and made some much-needed changes.
In chapters 12-14 of 1 Corinthians, Paul addresses spiritual gifts, these unique ways the Holy Spirit shows up in the lives of believers. As you read these chapters, you catch a general theme of unity out of diversity. The Holy Spirit immerses each person into the church as they become a believer (this is a spiritual experience, not baptism with water), and that same Holy Spirit uniquely gifts each one to do ministry for the good of the body. So, when you get a bunch of believers together in a church, you’ve got a beautiful blend of unique individuals to care for each other and reach their community with the love of Christ. That is God’s design for the church. And as messed up as the church is, it is still God’s plan for reaching a hurting world.
The problem Paul found with the Corinthian church was, lots of folks were arguing about who had the best spiritual gift, and some were thinking they didn’t have any gifts at all! So today’s three points are selective; they may not ALL apply to you. But one of them might. Consider these three attitudes, and see if you find yourself in any of them. First, the attitude...
1. “I can’t do anything!” (vv. 15-20)
This is the person who feels inferior, who thinks, “I have nothing to offer. My church doesn’t need me. I can’t sing. I can’t preach. I’m not good at anything.”
First, you are not inferior. “God don’t make no junk.” That’s bad English, but good theology! Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” The word for “handiwork” is sometimes translated “masterpiece.” You are a masterpiece on the canvas of God’s creation. And you were “created in Christ Jesus to do good works.” If you say you have nothing to offer, then you’re really saying more about God’s ability than your own. Everybody has something to offer the body of Christ.
And that brings us to Paul’s favorite metaphor for the church: the “body of Christ.” He uses the word “body” 18 times in today’s text and draws on the picture more than any other in his writings. In fact, he bookends today’s passage with this thought: verses 12 and 27 say the church is the body of Christ.
Back to the first attitude, “I can’t do anything.” Sometimes we’re jealous of people who have gifts we don’t have. “Why can’t I be more like them?” Drawing on the image of a human body, Paul writes in verses 15-17, “Now if the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being 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 stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?”
Every part of the body is important. The foot is important, even though it’s not a hand. The ear is important even though it’s not an eye. The body needs every unique body part! Not everyone needs to be a pastor, but somebody does. Not everyone needs to play the piano and organ, but somebody does. Not everyone needs to serve on the Board, or make hospital visits, or organize functions, or pray for those in need, or write notes of encouragement to people, or visit people at the Mission, or pass out bulletins. But somebody does. Someone needs to do each of those things. And each of you are equipped to glorify God and his church in some unique way. You will know you’re using your gift well when God blesses it. That’s a sign that you are honoring God with your unique gifting.
Maybe you’re thinking, “I don’t like my gifting. I want to do something else!” Take it up with God, because verse 18 says, “But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.”
You are important to the body of Christ. Find what God blesses and keep doing it. Maybe the second statement is yours. Have you ever found yourself thinking...?
2. “I have to do everything!” (vv. 21-25)
In verses 21-25 Paul wrote to people who thought their gift was better than everyone else’s. So let’s correct that right now: You and I are not God’s last hope for mankind! This church could survive quite well without any one of us. No one is indispensable.
In verse 21, Paul says, “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!’” He goes on to talk about how some of the most hidden parts of the body are absolutely indispensable. Think of your liver or kidneys. Quite hidden, but very important!
Sometimes I hear about someone who has been quietly praying for a person or for a situation coming up. Henry Blackaby calls these faithful prayer warriors the “knees” in the body of Christ, because they’re at least figuratively kneeling in prayer. But don’t worry if you can’t kneel; you can still pray. Sometimes I hear about someone visiting a person who is hurting, or offering food, or encouraging the person who just lost their spouse to come out for dessert or a drink. These little things that would often go unnoticed are no less important than the most stirring sermon, or the most incredible solo. None of us can do it all. We need everyone to be at work in the way God has called them. Otherwise, the body is incomplete. And there are lots of churches with missing body parts.
So those are the first two myths when it comes to being church. “I can’t do anything,” or “I have to do everything.” And the last we’ll look at today is,
3. “I don’t need anybody else.” (vv. 25-26)
Every person counts in the body of Christ. And the truth is, we do need each other. You are given at least one gift when the Holy Spirit brings you into the family of God. You may have lots of gifts, but you don’t have all the gifts. You need others in the body to be complete. There are no “Lone Ranger Christians.”
Paul writes for the need for unity out of our diversity. Listen to verse 25. Why has God given greater honor to the parts that lacked it? “So that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.” God wants us to care about each other. That’s what being the church is all about!
Our world today is struggling between “Black lives matter” and “Blue lives matter.” I’m going to tell you, in God’s eyes, every life matters! This last weekend we celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. This great man once said, “In a real sense all life is interrelated. All men [and women] are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be . . . This is the interrelated structure of reality.” King was talking about society, and with God’s help, perhaps we can get there someday. And our greatest chance of doing so is if the church leads the way! The body of Christ should model for society that every life matters!
We are interconnected. Verse 26: “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” Elsewhere, Paul writes, “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12:15). Our lives are caught up in each other. You know how, when you have a hang nail, it ruins your whole day? Or if you have a migraine, nothing else in your body is going to function well? That’s because the human body is inter-related. And so it is with the church. It’s ok to admit that you need your brother and sister in Christ. We are not designed to go it alone.
Let’s close with a hard look at verse 27: “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” Some of you here went to Boot Camp. And when you stepped off of that bus and found yourself in a unit, whether it was a platoon or a flight or something else, at that moment, your individuality was lost in the crowd. You became part of something greater than yourself. And all that mattered was the success of the unit. One person failed the obstacle course? Everybody failed. One person screwed up the facing movements? Everybody did push-ups in the rain. Because all that mattered was the unit.
Later, in your specialized training and first assignment, you were able to regain a little of your personality, your uniqueness. You could relax a little, although you never forgot that lesson about the mission of the team. Team comes first.
God gives us that blend in verse 27. He reminds us that WE are the body of Christ. We are all in this together. And then he reminds us of our individual giftedness, as he says, “And EACH ONE OF YOU is a part of it.” Use your unique gift and use it well, to honor God, to build up the church, to draw people to Jesus, to fulfill your destiny. Let’s pray about it:
Thank you, God, for this most unlikely of instruments you could use to reach humanity: the local church. Nobody but you could trust the most important message ever to the least likely ones to carry it. We can’t get along with each other, let alone those outside the church. We compare, we get jealous, we grow prideful. And yet, you call us to unity, unity out of diversity. Help us to live out the gifts of the Spirit you put in our life, and to do it to help each other, so this world will see you at work and be drawn to your love. We ask this through the head of the body, Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.
1 Corinthians 12:12-27
12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.13 For we were all baptized in one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 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 stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21 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!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Body facts (for welcome time):
60% of the adult body is water. That means, I’m not fat, I’m just flooded!
There are 100 billion nerves in the human body, and have you ever noticed? Some people have the ability to irritate ALL of them!
