INTRODUCTION
In change management, you always want to address those that must adopt the change by making the point of What’s in it for me? Why should I change what I am comfortable with for this new method of doing business? If you can’t adequately address this question the change will probably fail. This attitude carries over into my preaching. I want to show you that living for Christ has so many more benefits for your life that it is worth the efforts to change.
Although, I often try to demonstrate the “What’s in it for me?” question to spur you all on in your walk with Christ, I wonder if this direction leads us off the path into a self-centric attitude where scripture is all about me. My spiritual growth. My feelings of spirituality. My needs. My wants. My desires.
This self-centric attitude leads many to the thought process that they can be spiritual and follow after Christ without the Church. If it is about me and my spiritual growth, then why do I need to be part of a local body of believers? After all the church is just made up of imperfect sinners and people often are not as spiritual as me and therefore causes issues in my life. I am better off without the church! Did you hear all the talking about me in that?
We like to personalize scripture, and there is nothing wrong with that, but we need to keep the perspective that Christ really did not die for me. His plan of salvation that he had planned before the creation of the world was not to save me but rather to save His people.
Romans 9:25-26 ties in the passage from Hosea 2:23. Hosea’s wife is unfaithful. God is using Hosea’s wife as an example of how Israel was unfaithful to her husband God. God gives such hope in 2:23
23 I will plant her for myself in the land;
I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’
I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’;
and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”
In Romans 9:22-26 this passage is quoted again in reference to the church.
22 What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? 23 What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— 24 even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 25 As he says in Hosea:
“I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people;
and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,”
26 and,
“In the very place where it was said to them,
‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”
Notice that this great gospel message given here is not to the salvation of Arthur Miller. No it is to the Jews and the Gentiles. To all people. God from the very beginning is creating a kingdom. A bride. A church. John 3:14-17
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
God’s plan has always been to create a kingdom. The kingdom is made up of everyone who believes. Everyone. The Church, the kingdom is not individualistic in nature but rather corporate.
We see this corporate nature from the very beginning of the church. After Peter’s gospel sermon in Acts 2 3,000 souls were added to the new church. We see following that event that the Christians were devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. All who believed were together and had all things in common. Finally in verse 47 we have this statement:
47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Three thousand were added the first day and people kept being added daily. The kingdom of God was growing!
THE CHURCH IS MADE UP OF INDIVIDUALS BUT THE FOCUS IS ON THE WHOLE NOT THE PART
Now I am not here to say the individual is irrelevant. If we had no individuals where would the church be? A kingdom without a population is not much of a kingdom! But we must understand that the focus is on the kingdom and not the parts. I would love to read the full chapter of I Corinthians 12, but for time’s sake and our familiarity with this passage we won’t do that. The Corinthians were having trouble with the spiritual gifts given to them. Paul lays out that all the different gifts given were coming from the one Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit that apportions to each one individually as he wills. Paul introduces the analogy of the body being one but with many parts with this statement in verses 12-14:
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.
Paul then uses the analogy to show how each individual member is there to support the body. Each member is important to the whole of the body. The individual member cannot separate itself from the body and still be part of the body. If I slip and cut off my finger using my table saw the missing finger is no longer a part of the body. It is the body that is of primary importance and each individual supports the body. Now down to verse 26:
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.
In chapter 14 Paul is still discussing this topic of spiritual gifts. Let’s read the first few verses:
14 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. 2 For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. 3 But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort. 4 Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church. 5 I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be edified.
This is why our individualistic view of the church can be so destructive. If everything is about me the church better be catering to me so that I may have the spiritual experience that I desire, so that I will grow. Paul in dealing with the gifts says no way to that viewpoint. Our goal should be to strengthen, encourage, comfort, and edify the church!
On the day of Pentecost, the apostles spoke in tongues (or at least everyone heard it in their own tongue), but they were talking to a very diverse group of people and every person was able to understand the message. In Corinth they all spoke the same tongue, so although by the spirit someone may have a stirring moving word by the spirit but the only one edified by the message is the speaker, because no one else can understand. On the other hand, the gift of prophesy edifies the whole church. Speaking in tongues is great only if there is someone who is able to interpret it so the whole body is edified.
Paul goes on to say that if there is no one to interpret then that person should stay silent. Why? Verse 26
26 What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.
You see it is not about you. It is about us, the church. Our emphasis is to help build each other up. When we have that attitude of love then the church functions, as it should. It also demonstrates to everyone the importance of being part of the church. A cut off finger does not support the body and in fact is severed from the body.
CONCLUSION
This lesson is really a continuation of the last lesson on “Thoughts from a mourning father.” Going through the loss of Jaron, my family, and I were struck by the great generosity and love demonstrated to us by the church. You all sent cards, meals, stopped by to visit, financial help and on and on it goes. You all hurt when this small part of the body was hurting.
But it didn’t stop with this local congregation. South Fork, SLV, Victoria Street Churches of Christ were there helping. Other churches from around the state were there. Las Cruces Church of Christ was there. Churches around the nation sent cards, some I have no idea what the connection is with us, but the cards of encouragement came.
There are local congregations, but still only one body of Christ and we are all a part of that one body! It is amazing to see firsthand the body of Christ coming together and coming alongside a hurting body part, hurting with that part showing support, encouragement, and love.
Church, we need each other. We also need to realize that we truly are the body of Christ! Think of that. His hands, His feet, His representation of himself upon a planet called Earth. Do not get frustrated with the church, rather give up yourself in the church. Every time we meet and even when we don’t meet it is an opportunity to demonstrate the love Jesus demonstrated to us on the cross to one another.
