We Are the Body of Christ on Mission to Reconcile the World to God!
I’m delighted to be able to share with you from the Word of God today. It is so good to be in the house of the Lord!
My name is Matthew Parker and I’m the lead pastor of Church at the Mission, Yonge Street Mission, as well as a Regional Minister Assistant in Toronto, working with Jeff Knott, the Regional Minister for the EMCC for the area that includes Toronto.
As you may know I’ve been working with the Steering Committee of Riverside to ‘steer’ the church in a direction that will be pleasing to God and at the same time be a blessing to this local community.
It’s been a genuine blessing to work with Pastor Tim, who as you know is currently pastoring both St. Clair and Riverside churches.
He really is an excellent man, completely genuine and full of passion for the Lord Jesus Christ and for His church.
You are blessed, both the people of St. Clair Missionary Church and of Riverside Missionary Church, to have him as your shepherd, serving under the Great Shepherd, Jesus Christ.
And today I want to tap into the general theme that Pastor Tim has been talking about for the past number of weeks, which is Being Christ’s Church”
I thought we could do that by looking at a passage from 1 Corinthians 12:
1 Corinthians 12:12 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 by[c] 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.
This is a wonderful and encouraging passage that speaks to so many truths about God, about us as His people, and about the church. I'd like us to spend some time this morning exploring the following themes that emerge from the scriptures I've just read.
We are a part of the body - we are not alone
We are partners in the furthering of the gospel of Jesus
We are a holy priesthood
We Are A Part Of The Body - We Are Not Alone
Did you know that you are not alone? We are coming out of a worldwide pandemic, a plague that this planet has endured for 3 years.
One of the things that the pandemic did is create a situation forced upon us where many of us found ourselves disconnected from others.
For months upon months we couldn’t safely meet with others, even extended family members, we were in lockdown for some time. We suffered. You suffered.
But the truth is that we have this connection. We have this privilege to have this connection that is life giving, this relationship with others in the church that makes the truth of our lives be such that we are not alone.
We are not alone, but we do need to choose to engage, to connect with others. You have come to church today.
It may be that you are in the habit of going to church, or it may be that you are now at church and it’s your first timer or the first time that you’ve been in a while.
So good for you that you made this choice to come to worship at your local church. You are connecting to the body that you are a part of.
And you are as much a part of this church as you choose to be. There are many, many people in both Riverside and St. Clair churches that are quietly active.
Those are the prayer warriors, these are the ones behind the scenes who are praying for other members of the body, you are praying for your pastor, praying for people’s health, for their relationships.
You are interceding on behalf of others in the body, but none of us really know about it necessarily. But did you know that all that is going well in both churches is at least, at least in part, due to your prayers.
So to you who have chosen to be faithful by humbly and quietly contributing your prayers, perhaps your tithes and offerings - and nobody knows about it - you are awesome and God is rewarding you and will reward you.
Things done in the quiet can bring particular glory to God.
Matthew 6:3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Matthew 6:6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Thank you for your giving and your prayers that are done in secret as unto the Lord.
Now each of us is as much a part of our church as we choose to be.
I have always found that I’m personally healthiest when I’m connected to others, when I’m not in my own head, when I’m doing what I can be doing to bless others, to serve and worship God.
And interestingly, when I make the effort to get involved, I make connections with others which for me have often flourished into great, long-lasting friendships that mean a lot to me.
So You Are Not Alone. You Are Part Of The Body Of Christ.
And it really doesn’t matter in a very real sense what we’re doing. Back in the early church, the Apostle Paul wrote his epistles or letters most often in response to what he was hearing about what the issues were in the churches he had planted earlier in his ministry.
And the same is true of the larger passage that we read a few moments ago. It looks very much like some in the church were feeling less important than others.
Perhaps they were looking at the things that others were doing as they were operating with the spiritual gifts that God had given them, and they felt by comparison that what they had to bring was a little use.
So Paul gives great encouragement to the church in Corinth.
He emphasizes that it does not matter so much what we are doing in the body of Christ, we are all called to be a part of the body of Christ and we are all essential in the body of Christ, in the Church of Jesus.
I used to like to shovel the snow outside of my home church way back in the day.
That's because I wanted to make a contribution, one that I had the ability to make, that would help the church, that would help the body of Christ.
I did that as often as necessary, and I would sometimes serve as a greeter, and even as an usher once in a while.
Then for me in particular, because I'm a musician, I got involved musically in the services, once I had developed my musical gifting's to a level that would be useful in Worship at the church.
So whether it was shovelling snow, greeting people, or playing an instrument, I was using my fingers. But of course it is possible for people to feel, as some of the Corinthians did,
Somehow not as important as others. But again Paul emphasizes hear that no matter what we are in the church, no matter what we bring, matter what we do, we belong to the body.
And there's nothing that we can do really to make that not be the case, as long as we continue to be actively involved in church, actively invested in the body of Christ.
So yes, Paul says: 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.
And Paul also talks about how we should relate to each other as we serve the Lord within the church, within the body of Christ. He says
In verse 17: 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!”
This needs to govern our attitudes to one another.
We need to understand that we are each indispensable to the other, that we have in fact been called for such a time is this to be invested in these local church bodies of Riverside and of St Clair.
And Paul emphasizes A key kingdom principle, an idea that is very close to the heart of God.
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.
God has particular care and concern for those who "seem to be weaker". In Gods economy, the first is last and the last is first.
The last will be first, and the first will be last.” Matthew 20:16
The one who is the servant of all is the one who is the actual leader in any given church.
Matthew 20:26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
So this principal is very close to the heart of God, and we can see that even Jesus, our Savior, redeemer, the one who is the most high king of the universe, did not come to be served but rather to serve others, so much so that he literally gave his life as a ransom for us.
There should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.
Unity matters immensely to Jesus. And he wants there to be no division, no strife within the body.
We all need to value one another, and as members of the body of Christ, we need to have genuine and equal concern for one another. Amen?
26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
And because life is hard, because the world around us is hurting, we each go through our own times of deep suffering, we do express the heart of God when we support each other in our suffering.
And this mutually shared caring for each other strengthens the ties that bind, it gives us confidence so that we know that when we do come upon hard times,
the truth is that we are not alone. People are supporting us, they are loving us.
And because there is much good in life as well, and once in a while one member of the church body is celebrated, is honoured, we need to all rejoice.
In the worship service today at my church, Church at the Mission, the church of the Yonge Street Mission, we are celebrating this afternoon one of our pastors, Jan Rothenburger,
who I have served with for the better part of a 30 years.
We will talk about all that God has accomplished through Jan's life.
We are doing that because Jan has worked for the Yonge Street Mission for all those years and has now retired from the Mission.
The Church part of the mission is very much blessed because Jan is actually staying with us as our Community Outreach Pastor Emeritus.
So yes, Jan will be honoured today even as she has honoured Jesus Christ in her ministry to our community, in particular to those most vulnerable and St. involved in our community.
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
Paul gives us this final reminder that a key part of who we are as individuals and as a community is that we are the body of Christ, and Every. Last. One. of us is a part of it.
We are partners in the furthering of the gospel of Jesus
Now being part of the body of Christ means that we are a part of something that is bigger than us, and part of something that puts our lives into the same perspective that God has of us. We often don’t see ourselves from God’s perspective.
For instance, do you know that you are a beloved, adopted child of the Most High King of the Universe?
I often tell people that. It’s a big picture view of who we are in Christ Jesus.
Through faith in Jesus we have been adopted into the family of God.
Do you know that you are God’s special possession - that we are God’s special possession - that we are a chosen people.
We are a people who have been called out, selected by God for such a time as this to be His beloved, to be the object of His immense love, His great affection?
Well: 2 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
We are a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Why has God made this to be so?
So that we may declare His praises, so that we may worship and adore God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and so that we might be focussed in large measure on pointing others to the One Who called us out of darkness into His wonderful light!
What we have experienced in Christ, beloved Riverside and St. Clair churches - we are given the immense privilege of sharing to others so that they may experience the freedom of following Jesus, the joy of knowing that Jesus forgives sins and reconciles us to God.
Jesus removes the sin problem between humanity and God when we place our trust in Him, when we believe that He died on that cruel cross for us.
This is true of us:
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!
And God wants this truth to be spread across our communities through us, so much so that He has committed to us the message of reconciliation with God
2 Corinthians 5:18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.
So may we each grow in our understanding of how it is that we are part of the body of Christ.
May we embrace that no matter what part we are, no matter what role we play, no matter if we’re a finger or a toe or a neck or an eye, that we belong to Him Who is the head of the Church, Jesus Christ.
And may we see ourselves afresh as the beloved of God.
Can you read this with me:
I am a beloved, adopted child of the Most High King of the Universe.
This is true of us who are in Jesus Christ, frankly whether or not we accept it to be true.
Far better then that we accept who we are in Christ, that we treat each other as a royal priesthood - as royalty in other words, with that much respect and mutual care and honour,
and that we serve the Lord Jesus Christ with all our hearts, ready and always willing to give an account of the faith we have, so that God is honoured and glorified in and through us. Amen?
