For the next several weeks I’m going to be preaching a series of messages called “A God’s Eye View of the Church.” In these sermons we’re going to be taking an up close and personal look at what God wants the church to be, and hopefully an honest appraisal of who we really are. Now I want to be up front with you right now, my view isn’t unbiased. I won’t even claim to be an unprejudiced person. I love the church. I love being with church people. I love the music, well, most of it. I love the chance to study the Bible with others who really want to know what it says. I love to pray with people who are amazed and excited that God listens to us. I love having friends that I can tease with and cry with and laugh with and get angry with and through all that know that we love one another because of the deep bond we have through Jesus Christ. In a world filled with superficial relationships, I am excited about the deep fellowship that comes from being one in Christ. I love the church from the depth of my being. A couple of weeks ago the BCHS Girls soccer team came into the basement of our building to watch some game film. I let them in, and a couple of the girls walked in and said, “This place smells like a church.” I guess I never thought about it, but I love that smell! What I’m trying to say is that when I preach about the church, I’m preaching about something that is very near and dear to my heart.
But I hope to not just get into the pulpit and gush about how wonderful the church is. In the weeks to come, we’re going to look at the church through God’s eyes. We’ll examine the metaphors that God inspired the Biblical writers to use as they described the church. If you read through the New Testament, you will find that Jesus often referred to his followers as “The Kingdom of God.” Other places we are referred to in many terms that make us recognize that God expects us to be a family. On a couple of occasions the church is referred to as “the bride of Christ.” This morning we are going to examine one of Paul’s favorite descriptions, the church as “The Body of Christ.” Each of these descriptions tells us some very important messages about who we are and what we are to be like.
Now I want to prepare you a little. Just because I love the church so much, don’t expect this to be a several week infomercial about how great the church is. My wife loves me, but if you ask her if I have any faults she can identify 1 or 2. As we compare ourselves to the ideal that God has called us to be, we all need to wear some protective gear. I’m guessing that all of our toes will be sore by the time we recognize all that God wants us to be, and realize what we really are.
So let’s get started with a passage where Paul tells us that the church is “The Body of Christ.”
Text: 1 Corinthians 12:12-27
Those are great words that give us some really important insights into what the church is supposed to be. Honestly there could be an entire series of sermons just out of that passage. Paul points out that those of us who know Jesus as our Lord are a body of believers, many people who have various gifts and talents. We are all important in our roles as part of the body. But there is a bigger issue that we can’t miss. When we are Christians, members of the Body of Christ, we are
1. Connected To the Rest of the Body.
The main idea Paul is trying to get across in these verses is that in Christ we all have functions to perform. Every person is a part of the body, some are hands, some are feet, some are eyes and others ears. The body of Christ is made up of different people with different gifts and talents. Some of us can speak and teach, but we couldn’t sing if our life depended on it. Others can sing but they can’t cook a meal to help someone without passing along a bad case of botulism. Some are great leaders, but they are slobs and somebody needs to be around to clean up their messes. What Paul is saying is that we need each other in the body of Christ because on our own none of us is complete. As John Donne said, “No man is an island.”
We live in a society where individualism is cherished, but that is a dangerous thing about our culture. We are not complete in and of ourselves. Nobody gets the complete package they need to be everything they could be on their own. We need someone to hold us accountable. We need other people to encourage us when we are down and to discipline us when we get a little too full of ourselves. To use Paul’s idea, you might be an eye and an eye is a great thing to be, but if you don’t have some feet the view is going to get pretty boring. (Pause)
Over the course of my ministry I’ve known some people who thought of themselves as “free-lance” Christians. Do you know what I’m talking about? They are people who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, but they have no local church affiliation. When you talk to them they will often tell you of some time in the past when they attended a church, worshipping and serving actively. However, at some point something happened and they quit. Sometimes it was just out of apathy. Other times circumstances changed, like they moved. Many of them were let down by the church in some way and because of their disenchantment they determined it was better to go it alone. You’ve probably known people like that, “free-lancers.”
To Paul the idea of a “free-lance” Christian is a strange one. When we accept Christ as Lord and Savior we become a part of a body. We have a function to perform and we have a connection to the rest of the body. We serve the rest of the body, and the rest of the body works with us. The hands serve the feet and the feet serve the hands and the eyes are served by both, but hands and feet are limited without eyes. If we are severed from the body, we become nothing more than bodyless limb.
So, how many of you live in a neighborhood with a disembodied arm? Do any of you ever remember going to the store and walking past a foot doing a little shopping for some nail polish? The thought of such a thing is crazy! What Paul wants us to realize by using the metaphor of the body of Christ is that we need each other to get by. We need the help and encouragement that comes from being part of a larger group. We need people to teach us, to challenge us, to comfort us, and to be comforted, challenged and taught by us. This life is way too tough to try to go it alone.
When I think back over my 38 years, I can’t imagine what they might have been like if I hadn’t been intimately connected with a body of believers. When I needed to grow in my faith, there has always been someone there to teach me and encourage me. When I have had to stand in a cemetery as a family member was lowered into the ground, my church was there to support me. When I accomplished something of significance, my church has been there to celebrate with me. When I recognized a need that was bigger than I could fill on my own, there has always been a larger body available to assist in filling that need. I thank God that He didn’t save me and then leave me to “fin for myself.” He has given us a body of other believers, none of them exactly like ourselves, to live and grow with. Honestly, there are times when you guys drive me crazy, but I can’t imagine trying to get along without you. Any Christian that does is really facing the difficulty of being a disembodied limb trying to survive in a world that is tough enough when connected to the body.
Now 1 Corinthians 12 isn’t the only place where Paul uses the metaphor of the Body of Christ to describe the church. As a matter of fact, in his letter to the Ephesian and Colossian churches he goes into an extended discussion of the body as it is related to the head.
2. Responsive To The Head (Read Colossians 1:15-20; Ephesians 4:1-7; 11-16)
Now Paul doesn’t just like the idea of comparing the church to a human body because of the connectedness of it all. The big idea that he is getting across is that we all work together not because we are connected to one another, but because we are connected to a common head. To be a Christian you have to be under the headship of Christ. That is something that is really important to understand. A person is not a Christian based on what family they grow up in, or what town or nation they live in. A person is not a Christian just because they attend a Christian church. You don’t become a car by sitting in a garage. If a cat has kittens inside an oven, that doesn’t make them cookies. (Let that one sink in a little)
A person becomes a Christian when they respond to the will of Christ obediently. Jesus calls us to follow, but only when we submit our will to His Will can we be assured of being a part of the body of Christ. When Jesus becomes their head, when a person’s life is determined by the will of Christ, when they can say, “Jesus is my Lord and Savior,” then a person is a part of the body of Christ, with all the privileges and responsibilities that come with that.
Now if the church is the body of Christ, responsive to the will of Christ just like my physical body is responsive to the will of my mind, then that body is going to look like Christ. If we are the body of Christ then when people look at us they ought to be able to see Christ in our relationships. There’s not a bunch of griping and arguing, but there is unity and love. When people see the body of Christ at work, it shouldn’t see a bunch of busy-bodies, always doing something but never accomplishing anything. When the world sees the body of Christ, it should see people who are doing the things that Christ did while He was on earth.
Remember the example Jesus set for us. He lived his life out among the people. He served and He healed. He comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable. He loved people no matter who they were or what they were like. He prayed earnestly so that there was an intimate connection with His Heavenly Father. He taught the truth to people who believed lies. Sometimes they heard the truth and believed. Other times they tried to kill Him for it, but He never compromised the truth to win friends and influence people.
Now if those were the things that Jesus did while He was here on earth, don’t you think those are the things that He wants us to be doing? When Jesus calls out to us, His call is “Come, follow me.” There is a sense in which nobody can make that decision for me, it is an individual decision. But once we make that decision we become part of a body of believers who are all connected to the head, Jesus Christ our Lord. We will never have to go it alone any more.
A little over a year ago Pam and I were able to travel over to Austria to serve for two weeks with TCM. TCM is a ministry supported by this church that trains Eastern Europeans to be Christian leaders. There were many experiences on that trip that opened my eyes to a lot of things, but there was one big lesson that I learned. We sat down at meals with people from cultures far different than our own. There were Russians, Poles, Romanians, Hungarians, Ukranians, Macedonians and Americans all eating and laughing together. Sometimes we couldn’t understand each other very well. But the thing that amazed me was the supernatural unity we had in the midst of our diversity. Outside of Christ we have fought amongst ourselves for centuries. But together in Christ, gathered under the leadership of one head, there is a common cause and a bond of love that is bigger than our national pride.
You see, the Body of Christ is not an organization that strives to bring people together. The body of Christ is a living organism that works together to serve the head of the body, Jesus Christ. We are connected to one another by our love for the one who called us to a new life, redeems us from the consequences of our sin, and renews us for a life of service and love.
The fact of the matter is, you can’t love Christ without loving the Church. The church is the Body of Christ. When you respond to the call of Christ to follow Him, you become a part of a world-wide body that is bigger than any culture, language or denomination. If you are part of the body of Christ, you are never on your own. You have a place where you belong, and you have a place where you can become everything that God wants you to be. If you follow Jesus, you are part of His Body here on earth.
The good news is that it doesn’t matter who you are or what your past has been. You can be a part of the body by accepting Jesus as your Lord.
