What is the Church? Part 1

[0:00] So, as you turn now to 1 Corinthians 12, we're going to start reading at verse 12 to 27. 1 Corinthians 12, this is Paul speaking.

[0:17] For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit.

[0:35] For the body does not consist of one member, but of many. If the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I don't belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body.

[0:52] If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.

[1:07] If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

[1:19] On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be the weaker are indispensable. And on those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we bestow the greater honor.

[1:29] And our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that members may have the same care for one another.

[1:47] If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ, and individually, members of it.

[1:59] Amen. This is God's word. You know, when you think about the church today, maybe the church in America, I think a lot of people look at the church in America today and don't feel great about what they see.

[2:13] For all kinds of reasons. You look out at the landscape in the church today and you see that we are, the church in America is plagued with divisions. You see that in Marion County just as well.

[2:25] You see that in the church in America so often sins that should never be allowed in the church are allowed into the church all too often. Or you look at the church in America and so many churches, you see really bad theology going into churches that were previously really healthy.

[2:41] And those churches are going astray. And because of that, it's easy to step back and say, and a lot of people do this, if only we could go back to the early church. If only we could get back to that first century church where things weren't so bad.

[2:56] And what you realize when you read a book like 1 Corinthians is that that is false nostalgia. Because when you read about what's going on in Corinth that Paul's writing to, what do you find?

[3:07] You find a church that is plagued with divisions. You find sins that should never be allowed in the church are allowed in the church. And you find that really bad theology is seeping into what was once a really healthy church.

[3:19] Everything, in other words, all the things that we so often look at our churches and are so disgusted with, all had the same problems in the first century. And there's something about human nature that keeps coming back to the same problems over and over again in the church.

[3:34] And that's why you can look at a letter like this and you can say, Paul wrote this to the church in Corinth, but this speaks to us today. Because they are the church and we are the church and we're dealing with the same problems.

[3:47] And so that's why Paul is really helpful, even to us today. And what Paul says here is, he says, division, the kind of division that was happening in his church and the kind of division that can happen in our churches, is a failure to appreciate the implications of the gospel.

[4:07] If the gospel becomes true in our churches, if we live it out, then the kinds of divisions that so often happen all across humanity don't have to happen in the church.

[4:18] And you see his thesis here in verse 12. He says, just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ. Paul is saying, listen, if you are a part of the church, if you're a Christian, you are a part of the body of Christ.

[4:35] And it's a fact that cannot be changed. But what Paul does for us is, he gives us two challenges to living out the fact that the church is the body of Christ.

[4:46] And that's what we're going to look at this morning. And the first challenge is, so often we think the church doesn't need me. That's the first danger that Paul's warning about here.

[4:58] We think the church doesn't need me. And you see this in verses 14 to 20 at the beginning, the first half. And what Paul imagines is, he imagines there's so many people in the church in Corinth who look at the church, and they say to themselves, I see no place for me here.

[5:13] And maybe that's because they look at the kind of people that are maybe the most visible in the church, people that look really gifted, people that have almost gifts and abilities, they look at themselves and they say, I'll never have that.

[5:28] And they say, well, there must be no place for me in this church. And Paul has kind of a twofold response to that. First, he says, if you are in Christ, if you are a Christian, then you are a part of the body.

[5:41] It's not something that you might be one day if you try hard enough. Being a Christian means being part of the body. It's what is true of you. You know, when I talk to people from Columbia, whenever I meet them, sometimes I'll ask them, how long have you lived in Columbia?

[6:01] Or are you from Columbia? And so often they'll say, well, you know, I've spent, I've actually lived most of my life here. I've been here for 30 years. And then they'll kind of give me a look, which is what they're basically saying is, but of course that makes me just a visitor in a town like this.

[6:15] You know, Columbia is a place that, you know, to truly belong, some might say, you have to be born here. And you've got to live here for a long time. And even if you lived here for 40 years, you're not really from here.

[6:26] And Paul is saying that that's the opposite of what's true for the body of Christ. The day you become a Christian, you are as, you are as much a part of the body as you will ever be, because it's simply what is true of you.

[6:39] And then the other part of that response is, if that's true, if the day you become a Christian, you become a part of the body of Christ, that means that the day you become a Christian, you also have a role to play in the body of Christ that can be played by no one else but you.

[6:57] That's what Paul is saying. He's saying, if he's, he's, he's using an illustration that even a child can understand. You know, if you are any part of a human body, you have a role to play in that body, even if it may look small.

[7:11] And Paul's saying, if you're a Christian, you have a part to play in the body of Christ. I've used this illustration before in our new member class, the first time we did it, but, you know, Carly and I, our family has moved about four times in the past 10 years.

[7:26] And every time we move, we've got to find big, strong men to help us move the furniture. And what, there's this, there's a truth to how you move furniture, which is that, you know, you can bring, you can have two guys that are really strong and they can help you move almost every piece of furniture in your house.

[7:44] But, but say that those two guys can each lift 150 pounds a piece. That means that together they could lift a 300 pound piece of furniture together. But, say that you have a piece of furniture that's 310 pounds.

[7:58] What that means is that those two big strapping men, however hard they try, they'll never be able to lift the one piece of furniture that you need them to lift. And what that means is, if a third person comes along, and they may be the weakest person you've ever seen, but if they can lift that extra 10 pounds, they're the difference between being able to lift the furniture and not lift the furniture.

[8:18] And I think that illustrates the point that, you know, sometimes we say to ourselves, we excuse ourselves from getting involved in church by saying, you know, if I don't show up, that church is not going to lose much, you know, because what, you know, they can do the work.

[8:34] Because we, sometimes we think about work in church, like, even if you have a few people, as long as they keep working hard, it'll get done. But what, what, what Paul is saying here is each of us have an irreplaceable job.

[8:47] So that if we're not there, there's things that God wants to do in this church that will not be done because your gifts are not here. And, and the, the illustration of the body emphasizes that even more because every part is an irreplaceable part that can't be, you can't slot in another piece for another piece.

[9:05] And, you know, what, what I find interesting here is, you know, as you think about what holds people back from really committing to, committing to a church. And sometimes, some people have pointed out, uh, in verse 14, you know how he says, he says, if the foot should say, because I'm not the hand, I do not belong to the body.

[9:23] Some people suggest, maybe, maybe Paul just chose two parts at random, but some people say, you know, it's funny that Paul would compare two parts of the body that are so similar, because it is, isn't it the case that so often in life, the people that we compare ourselves to are the ones that are most like us, you know?

[9:40] So the foot doesn't, doesn't care about what the head's doing or what the ear's doing or what the eye's doing. But, you know, there's this other appendage that has five fingers, just like that foot has. And it looks and it says, you know, I'm just a foot, but that hand, it's got that opposable thumb.

[9:55] It is so much better than I will ever be. And, and that's what we do, right? We compare ourselves to those who are kind of have the gifts that are the closest to us. And if their gifts are a little bit better than ours, we say, there's no place for me here.

[10:09] They, look, they've got a hand at that church already. You know, what, what role can a foot have? And Paul is saying, no, the hand and the foot are different and they're all playing their own role. You know, you often hear people say comparison is the thief of joy.

[10:24] And in the body of Christ, comparison is the thief of unity. Paul's message to his community is every single person in this church is essential. And that, you know, that's, that's the same kind of message that you might hear at a fortune 500 company.

[10:41] You bring in a great CEO and, and the guy talks about how essential every person is, but this is, this is really different what Paul's talking about here, because the gifting that each of us bring to the table in the body of Christ is not, is not what you might call our natural gifting.

[10:58] Paul is saying, if you are in Christ, then God has given you a, a gift from God to perform in your church.

[11:08] So it's not like if you're not there, God will still do whatever God was going to do. It's that God has given you, God has given his power and his grace to you to serve your church.

[11:20] So that if you're not there, there's a part of God's grace and power. That's not being used in the church. And you see that in verse 18, verse 18, Paul says, as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chokes.

[11:38] And I think it's easy to lose sight of that, but in this illustration, Paul is saying, God is the one who is organizing the body. And God is the one who is empowering the body. And so if a person says, I have no place in this body, and I don't mean Columbia Presbyterian church.

[11:54] I mean, the, the active body of Christ. If a person says, I don't have a role there, what they're really doing is they're looking at God and saying, what Paul says here, God is just not true of me. You have it to give me a gift.

[12:06] And that's, that's not true. Paul's saying every person has a gift. So what do we do with that? Well, you know, I think the most practical thing we can say is, well, let me say this first.

[12:21] Explicitly, God has given you, if you are in Christ, every single one of you individually, God has given you a gift to serve the body of Christ with. And that is a blessing.

[12:31] You know, it's like a Christmas day blessing. God has given you something that you did not deserve, but it's also, as with so many of God's promises and blessings, they also come with a command on the other side, of it, which is God has given you a blessing and he has commanded you to use that blessing for the good of his people, for the body of Christ.

[12:53] And most practically, we can say, if you're a Christian, you have an obligation to commit to a local church. You have an obligation to commit yourself to believers and to serve however you can with the gifts that God has given you.

[13:09] And that's not an advertisement for Columbia Presbyterian Church. That's an advertisement for the body of Christ, whether it's Columbia or whether it's any other healthy, God-fearing church in this community or wherever you live.

[13:23] In the name of God, I'm telling you, you have an obligation to commit yourself to the body of believers because of the gifts that God has given you. Now, more practically, I can speak of here at Columbia Presbyterian Church.

[13:36] If you are, if you are a visitor in this church or if you're a long time member, basically, if you have any connection to this church and you're active here in the past year and a half, that means you've gone through a lot of transition, whether it's, whether it's, you are a part of a really small church here that's now grown a good bit, or whether it's, you are a part of another body of believers and now you've come here.

[13:57] That's the case with my family. We moved from Scotland here a year and a half ago. And so this, one of the challenges that this body has right now is we've got so many people coming together for the first time.

[14:11] And so one of the challenges that we'll have is how can we steward all the gifts that God has given the individuals here? Well, and sometimes as our church grows, what we'll find is there will be needs and we don't know who to put in those needs, or we'll have people that have really great gifts and we don't know how to use those gifts.

[14:31] And so what we have to do is we have to look at each other and say, we will be patient with one another as we learn how to use our gifts well together as one body. And we just have to trust that that is what God is calling us to, to have one body that works together with all of its different members.

[14:47] Okay. Now that's the first, the first danger that Paul talks about here is the danger of thinking the church doesn't need me. But the second danger, which you see in verses 21 to 27 is the danger of thinking, I don't need the church.

[15:02] Okay. And you see this in verse 21. He says, the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor the head to the feet. I have no need of you. On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem weaker are indispensable.

[15:16] Now, I think what Paul was imagining and what was true in Corinth was you had a church that probably valued, that definitely valued some gifts more than others.

[15:26] And so it was really the church, the people who were meeting were looking at other members who, and treating them like they were peripheral, treating them like they didn't really belong because their gifts weren't valuable because maybe they were more of a, the church saw them as more of a burden than an asset to the church.

[15:45] And so essentially what they were doing was they were saying, we don't need the whole church. We just need people who are gifted, who've got the good gifts, you know, the gifts that really impress people.

[15:56] And Paul is saying that is not how the church is, that in fact, God lifts up the weakest parts of the church for his glory. You know, there's a, there's a modern day philosophy that kind of ties in with that kind of a way of seeing the church, which is called utilitarianism.

[16:14] It's that you may have never heard the word, but we all, our world runs according to it. And it's this idea that we value people based on what they can do, based on what they can give, based on what they can offer us.

[16:26] That's what utilitarianism says. And so if a person, if you look at them and they can do nothing for you, or you look at them and you say, there's nothing that this person could bring to our church.

[16:37] Well, you say, well, maybe they don't belong here. Maybe they're not really a part of this body. And that's why Paul is saying, no, every single person, you can't look at any part of the body of Christ and say, they have no place in this body.

[16:50] This really came home to me recently when I read an article by a woman named Maureen Swinger. And Maureen wrote an article about her brother who had recently passed away called the teacher who never spoke.

[17:02] And her brother was, he died when he was about 31 and he was basically incapacitated his whole life. He was in a wheelchair his whole life. He needed constant care.

[17:12] And it wasn't all clear how well his brain functioned at all. And she talked about how difficult in some ways it was to live in the kind of world that we live in, where people look at someone like that and implicitly think, what value is there in that?

[17:33] What value is there in this person? They can't do anything for me. And if a person's value is based on what they can do for you, what value is this person? But what she talked about was how she lived in a Christian community and how they, they simply loved him because God commanded them to love him.

[17:51] But what they learned over time was, and the reason she called the article, the teacher who never spoke, was because over time they realized in that community of Christians that he was in fact one of their best teachers.

[18:05] And she put it like this. She received a letter from a young man who spent a lot of time helping to care for this young man named Dwayne. And he wrote her a letter that said this.

[18:16] He said, During my early 20s, my life was fraught with struggle and confusion till I got the chance to care for Dwayne. He taught me that I really didn't know it all, that I had to start caring for others first, that perfection and strength as God sees them were utterly different from my previous strivings for those qualities.

[18:36] I don't know where I would be without having known him. And so she pointed out this beautiful irony that here is someone who, in the eyes of the world, looks completely invaluable.

[18:48] And yet as that Christian community wrapped themselves around him, he became one of their greatest teachers. And she also put it like this. She talked about how he helped raise a generation of men in that community know how to love well.

[19:03] She said, She said, Caring for him was also fatherhood training. Graduates of Dwayne's school, she would call it, she would say that men would become students of Dwayne.

[19:15] She said, Graduates of Dwayne's school could face whatever came along with humor, patience, and grace. Basic nursing, daunting diapers, or a string of sleepless nights. They learned leadership, humility, and the necessity of prayer.

[19:28] Many future families were to benefit from studying in the school of Dwayne. You see what her point was? Here's the weakest member of the body.

[19:39] And the weakest member of the body, in that instance, in that community, became one of the greatest teachers. And I think Paul is pointing to that same thing here. If you look in verse 22, he says, He says, On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.

[19:57] Now, weaker there, a synonym for the Greek word there is sickly. You know, sometimes you'll look at a child and you'll say, That's a sickly child. And that's what Paul, that's the word he's using.

[20:08] He's saying, The parts of the body that we think are sickly are the most valuable. They're not just weak. In the eyes of somebody, they're burdensome or they're a liability.

[20:21] And yet, Paul says, No, these people have a value in the body of Christ because they've been given that value by God. And God has given even them a role in the body of Christ. You know, I think one of the dangers that any church has is, you know, we raise up the most gifted people in our church.

[20:38] And we say, What would we do without that person? You know, we need this person or our church can't go on. And I don't think it's impious to say that. And, you know, we can say that we can mean it rightly.

[20:49] It's wonderful to praise people and say, We're so glad you're here. But if we really mean that, if we really mean we don't think this church can survive without this person, I think, I don't mean to be impious.

[21:00] I think God laughs at that. Just the way in Psalm 2, God laughs at the rulers of the world that plot in vain. Because that assumes that what we really need for this church to thrive is a certain person.

[21:12] And what God is saying is, No, God, Christ is the head of the body. And he empowers every member with his power. And that's where we look at God and we say, If he weren't here, we don't know what we would do.

[21:25] And, um, so, so, so what part of the danger here is thinking we don't need the church. And Paul is saying, No, you look at every person in the body of Christ and you say they have value. And I think if, I think if Paul were to come to 21st century church in America or to Columbia Presbyterian Church, the church in America, there's a lot of ways where he might say, you know, in a lot of ways, your church is healthier than the first century church was.

[21:52] But I think one place where he would say the church today is less healthy than it was in the first century is that we have taken this idea that we don't need the church to the extreme. Um, and because all of us buy in, whether we realize it or not, to what you might call Western individualism.

[22:08] You know, from the day you're born in our culture, you're raised to think independently, to think I can provide for myself, and to think about your life solely in terms of satisfying your, your desires and your goals.

[22:21] What are your goals in life? What do you want? And so, so rarely do we ask each other, what is required of you by the community? Um, here's a statistic.

[22:33] There was a recent survey that showed that one third of Christians, people who claim to be Christians, attend church at all. And we all know, you'll hear pastors talk about this all the time, that after COVID, there was a huge drop off of church attendance where people just, they just stopped going over time.

[22:50] And the biggest, the biggest demographic of people that stopped going to church was, was baby boomers for whatever reason. And I think part, I think if Paul came and he saw that, he saw people who call themselves Christians, but who had no connection whatsoever to a part of the body of Christ.

[23:08] I think that would, um, that would scare him. And I think so easy for us, it's easy to get desensitized. And, and I know what it's like, you know, you miss a Sunday, you miss a couple of Sundays.

[23:18] And before long, you stop going to church at all. And, and it's not automatically obvious that something is wrong. But if you take the imagery that Paul gives us to its natural conclusion, what you have in America is a bunch of hands and feet and eyes and ears running all over the country with no connection to one another.

[23:35] And I think Paul's message is not just, it's not just judgment saying that's wrong. He's saying, don't you see what you're missing? Don't you see, think about what we're missing when God creates a body to live in unity together.

[23:49] And we don't take advantage of that. Isn't that sad? Isn't that sad for each of us? God, let me, we can put this bluntly. God made you and he made me.

[24:00] He made every single one of us to be dependent on one another. We, you know, he, he looked to Adam in the garden of Eden. And he, after he made them, he said, he's good, but it is not good that man should be alone.

[24:13] And, you know, Paul, Paul was a single man. And he, Paul said, you know, sometimes it's right for a person to live their whole lives alone, but not without the body of Christ. He said, the body of Christ is essential.

[24:24] Every person plays a part in it. So summary here. What, what am I trying to get at? What do we walk away with this? You are, every single one of you is needed by the body of Christ, whether it's at Columbia Presbyterian, Presbyterian church or somewhere you are needed, not just, not just to fill in a seat, but to serve and to give yourself to this place.

[24:46] And then also you are not safe on your own. You are, you are just an eye. You are just an ear. You're just a finger. You're just a foot.

[24:57] Without the body of Christ, you cannot be who God has made you to be because he made you to be someone who lives together in unity, in the power of God. Um, and let me just close with this.

[25:10] Probably the most important thing I'll say, but it's easy to lose sight of the church is that. What is the church? One answer to that. The church is a body, but you, you can't understand it until you say, whose body is it?

[25:22] And you see it down there in verse 27. He says, now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And, but, but what I, what I, what I didn't see until I was hours into preparing the services, but, uh, in verse 12, he even puts it more bluntly.

[25:40] He says, just as the body is one member and all the members of the body, though many are one. So it is with Christ. So he doesn't just say you're the body of Christ.

[25:50] He refers to the church as Christ. That's how close the church and Christ are in this world. And that means that Jesus Christ cares for what goes on here.

[26:00] And he doesn't just care. He uses his power. He promises his power to help us. You remember when Paul, uh, was first confronted by Jesus. You remember what Jesus said to him before his conversion?

[26:12] He says, Paul, Paul, why are you persecuting me? Jesus, Jesus, he thinks of himself. He, he knows himself so closely connected to each of us as a part of the body that when one of us suffers, Paul, Jesus can say, why are you hurting me, Paul?

[26:31] Why are you hurting me? And I think that's a great hope for us that, you know, when, when we don't know what the next step to take is, uh, what, what is God asking our church?

[26:42] What is, what is he asking of me individually as an individual to serve this church? What does he want me? How do I do it? We can trust that Jesus Christ has not left his church because the church is him.

[26:54] They're one in the same. That's why Paul talks so much about being in Christ. You and I are in Christ, but we're not just in Christ as individuals. You and me together as a part of the body are in Christ.

[27:06] We're one body. And let's live that. Let's live that. Let's pray. Heavenly father, how good it is, uh, when your church dwells together in unity.

[27:18] And we pray that you will be our great guy. As we learn what it means to be in fellowship together, help us to keep you at the center of everything we are, because you are the head of the church.

[27:31] Uh, help us in your son's name. We pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.