Service Masters Series

Service Masters

1st Corinthians Series

CCCAG February 8th, 2025

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:27–31

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Introduction: We Think in Ladders—God Thinks in Bodies

>>One of the most natural—and most dangerous—things we learn early in life is how to assign a person’s worth by their position.

From childhood, we are trained to think in hierarchy’s:

• Top students, bottom students

• Management, staff

• Officers, enlisted

• Doctors, nurses, aides

• Star players, benchwarmers

And if we’re not careful—if we don’t intentionally resist it—we drag that same ranking system into the church.

We don’t say it out loud in church, but we unconsciously think it:

• “Because of this title, that person is more spiritual.”

When I was 13 or 14, I was going through confirmation classes in the Lutheran Church. As part of it, we all had periodic meetings with the youth pastor. Pastor Dave was a Godly man, who I admired because he was very approachable and not as severe looking as the senior pastor.

During one of those times, I made mention that I’m glad he had a ticket to heaven that the rest of us didn’t have.

His head kind of tilted to the side and he asked what I meant.

I said, “Well, the bible says that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of God.”

Pastor Dave laughed, and in terms a 14 year old would understand, explained that scripture and the meaning of what the Gospel message meant.

I was mistaken in believing because he had the clerical collar on, and had “earned” the title of pastor, that he had a guaranteed ticket to heaven that the rest of us do not have.

It shows how even at 14 years old, I already had a mindset that was framed in believing that title and rank mean something to God.

I think in many ways, we all have that to a degree.

In the scripture we are reading today, Paul steps into that mindset with a theological crowbar and starts ripping it apart.

This morning, we’re going to talk about service—not as a stepping stone to importance, but as obedience in its purest form.

This sermon is called Service Masters.

People who have mastered their calling in service to Christ and each other.________________________________________

Let’s anchor ourselves in the Word.

1 Corinthians 12:27–31

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it. 28 And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, next miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, leading, various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all do miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in

tongues? Do all interpret? But desire the greater gifts. And I will show you an even better way.

Prayer

This morning we want to examine this scripture and see past our human thinking about rank and structure, and see something even more beautiful- the economy of the Kingdom of God, and it’s earthly expression- the Church of Jesus Christ.

The first thing we will look at is that this passage is not about ranking.

It is about function.

And confusing those two things has quietly damaged churches for centuries, and one the biggest ways it has done so is to create a false dichotomy between what we call clergy and everyone else in the body.

Let’s look at the first point-

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I. The Church Is a Body—Not an Org Chart

In most of the jobs that I have ever had, somewhere in the paperwork received during orientation, you see a flowchart showing who answers to who and where you fit within a hierarchy of authority.

It’s just a consequence of living in this time and place, all of us are wired to think that way.

But the bible flips that.

“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”

No one here should be an individual attenders.

No one here should be a selfish consumers.

The most perfect example of the Body of Christ is an interdependent body.

Throughout this chapter, Paul uses the example of our bodies to make this point.

No organ wakes up in the morning wondering if it’s more important than the others.

Your heart doesn’t resent your lungs.

Your liver doesn’t demand respect and recognition from your kidneys.

They just do what they were designed to do.

No fanfare

No recognition

No applause- each one doing what it was designed to do, to support the whole organism.

The church is the same way-when every part does what it’s designed to do, we call that being healthy.

But, when one part fails, the whole body suffers, and we call that being sick.