The Body: Assembly Required

TEXT: I Corinthians 12:27

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

Intro:

It is interesting to see what man and science has figured out about the “Body”. Looking at the surface of the body we can see a covering we call skin that acts as a protector of our internal organs, not to mention if we didn’t have skin our organs would fall out. The fact that no person has the same finger prints tells us that the skin alone is complex. We look to internal things in the body and we see complex systems of the pulmonary, cardiovascular, the digestive, the glandular and the nervous system. Yet not one of these would exist without the cells that make them up, and again not one cell would exist without the molecules that make them up, and we could even go further and say no molecules would exist without protons, neutrons and electrons. Some scientist even say the divisions keep on going. It is easy to see that the body is a complex group of systems that coexist to form what we look at in the mirrors every morning. If one of these systems fails their will either be death or at least a lot of confusion or pain.

Isn’t it interesting that in I Corinthians 12 Paul describes the functioning Church as the “body”. More specifically He describes the church as the body of Christ Lets look to I Corinthians 12 to See what Paul meant by describing the Church as the body of Christ, but first let me give you some background of the Corinthian Church to help aid us in understanding Paul's motives to his writings.

Background:

A. The city was paganistic ( Temple of Diana)

1. They Had many Temple prostitutes

2. They were a rich society

B. Paul planted Corinth in About 51 AD.

C. I Corinthians shows Some problems Paul dealt with there

1. Division in the Church (this is the issue Paul was dealing with in our passage)

2. sexual Immorality

3. Trouble at the Agape Love feasts- Communion Services

4. In subordination to the authorities of the church Mainly Paul

5. Selfish Pride

Kind of Sounds Like the good old United States.

Now that we have looked at the background of the Corinthians lets get back to the “body” issue and we will ask a few questions to helps us understand what Paul is getting at. The first question is...

I. WHAT IS THE BODY OF CHRIST MADE UP OF ? (I COR. 12:12)

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.

Here is what we find concerning this passage...

1st A. Christ is the head of the body (Eph 4:15-16)

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

1. In Christ is all Knowledge VS Our heads contain our minds which contains Knowledge

2. The head nourishes the body VS Our head has the mouth and nose to bring fresh air and nourishing food

3. The Head gives direction to the body VS We think out decisions

4. Christ bounds us together As ligaments bond bones together

5. He loves us and build us

6. Notice this all takes place as we each do are work (If we view the Church the way Paul describes it we can say there are no pew warmers in the body) A person who is not at least seeking his place in the body could be described as a tumor or a cyst. WE ALL HAVE A PART IN THE BODY BECAUSE WE ARE THE BODY

2nd B. The Church is the body (We are the body of Christ) (1 Cor 12:27) Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

1. Remember the introduction about scientific research on the body

2. The body is the working agent of the head

3. Many body parts to perform many tasks

a. Eyes for seeing

b. The nose for smelling

c. Feet for walking

All parts of the body are important to achieve a functioning person, even the parts that seem unimportant when not in place cause great problems in the functioning of the body.

4. Think of all the tasks that get done at the Church.

a. Preaching

b. Teaching

c. Singing

d. Ushering

e. Cleaning

f. Mowing

g. Taking out the garbage

h. Visiting

5. All of these things are important and none can survive without the other (Make Comparison between Important parts and less Important parts both in body and church)