The Body Of Christ

Intro

Who here follows the 10 second rule? You know if you drop something on the ground it’s supposedly still good for 10 seconds, but if you leave it there for longer than 10 seconds then it’s no longer any good

I’ve always been a pretty big fan of the 10 second rule, and it’s fascinating to see how people lose interest and consider something not worth it or garbage after only 10 seconds.

Have you ever heard of the evangelistic 10 second rule?

It’s when you feel the spirit prompting you to do something and you have about 10 seconds to engage with that thing before you consider it pointless.

For Example there have been times when I considered buying someone else’s coffee however I waited to long and talked myself out of it, when it could’ve been the perfect evangelical opportunity.

Now I’m sure you have had similar experiences, and it makes us realize that sometimes we are scared to do the work of God if that means we step out of our comfort zone.

However what do we read in scripture?

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

So we are called to go out into the world making disciples and baptizing them, and we read in 1 Corinthians 12:12-30 That we are the body of Christ and so each of us has their own part of God’s work.

Now I don’t want to focus on the unity of the body of Christ because we just talked about that recently, Rather today I want to talk about the Body of Christ and what that means in terms of what we ought to be doing as the body of Christ.

What is the Body of Christ

So what exactly is the Body of Christ? (allow response) So we are the body of Christ, and what is the intention of One’s body? to do that which the head tells it to do.

Now we have such clear instruction from the word of God as to how we should seek to do God’s work. and we are faced with the fact that not only are we to do God’s work but everything that we do represents the Lord, good or bad.

Now sometimes we don’t represent the church well at all, in fact one many people have interactions with Christians causing them to walk away thinking that Christians are these hypocritical, hateful, people who are delusional. and that all comes from how we represent God.

We have to represent well, we have subjected ourselves to a higher calling, to do God’s work. Who is it exactly that does God’s work? certainly pastors, they are very clearly doing God’s work, at least that’s the hope.

But what about the plumber? What about the Car Dealer, what about the construction worker, what about the store clerk, or the chef? are they doing God’s work?

This is somewhat of a trick question because you can’t say that everyone in those professions are doing God’s work.

So if you have 2 car dealers, one is a Christian the other is not, which one is doing God’s work...?

But aren’t they doing the same job? Both are selling cars, so how is it that 2 people can do the same exact thing and yet one is doing God’s work and the other is not?

Most of you here has at some point worked with people who do the same exact job that you did. So what was the difference between the work you did and the work they did?

Potentially the actual work you did, was identical, the average person walking by may not be able to tell who did the work because both worked on it well.

But when asked why you did it, and why you did it well, the answers should be vastly different. You see regardless of the work we do, we do it knowing that we are representing the kingdom of God, Let’s read 1 Corinthians 10:31-33

1 Corinthians 10:31–33 ESV

31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 32 Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, 33 just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.

“I do not seek my own advantage but that of many!”

The key difference between the work of believers and unbelievers, or at least what should be the big difference; is that they do it for them, and for their own success, we do it to bring glory to the kingdom of heaven in hopes that through our work or rather through our witness, others may see God’s goodness and be saved.

When it comes down to it, that’s part of what it means to be the body of Christ! That we would do God’s work for the sake of others rather than ourselves.

That’s one of the reasons why Unity is such a common theme when talking about the body of Christ. One of the most essential parts of Unity is the denial of oneself, desiring the goodness of the whole body rather than oneself.

You see we let Pride have far too much control over what we do, but we need to begin to consider others as more important than ourselves.

How Should We Seek to do God’s Work

But what does it look like exactly to do God’s work? Yes we should be a witness to God’s goodness in everything we do, but what about outside of our professions?

Let’s read 1 Corinthians 12:27-30

1 Corinthians 12:27–30 ESV

27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?

The answer of course to these questions is no, who wants to come up here right now and take my place on the pulpit and start preaching? (call someone out and offer) okay so clearly we are not all called to be teachers. we each have our own gifts.

But now what about the other gifts, let me ask you when was the last time someone in here has spoken in tongues?

So you’re telling me that God failed to give this church a piece of the body, the the churches of the new testament church had. Many people get caught up on the fact that not every spiritual gift can be seen as often today.

Now I want it to be known, I believe that every one of these gifts are a work of the Holy Spirit and just because one of these gifts are not needed in the churches of Pennsylvania does not mean that they are not needed elsewhere in the world.

You may know the story of manna falling from the sky when Israel was wandering through the wilderness. Why did this occur? one of the clear reasons was because food was scarce. Now would you say that that manna was a gift from God, or a work of man? A gift from God.

Okay so what happened to the manna that was from Heaven when they had entered the promised land? It stopped, why? because once the people of Israel was in the promised land they were no longer in need of that gift. The land was plentiful.

So when we look at things like speaking in tongues, the intention was to receive the word of God and then someone would interpret. Now here in America almost everyone already has complete access to the word of God.

I doubt many of you have seen miraculous healings, well again in America God has blessed us so abundantly that we have a highly advanced surgeries that can cure problems once thought to be impossible.

God’s gifts are applied as they are needed. In fact when we continue reading through v. 31

We Receive Gifts

1 Corinthians 12:31 ESV

31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

What exactly are the higher gifts? It’s certainly not the more desirable gifts. Let me tell you, I would love to have the gift to perform miracles, how great it would be to give people a clear sign of God’s power that would wipe away any doubt in their minds.

But that’s not what we’re supposed to be desiring, the higher gifts aren’t the cooler or better gifts, it is the gifts needed in the church. for example, this church doesn’t need people speaking in tongues, it doesn’t need people performing miracles because that’s not what our faith is built on, it doesn’t need anymore pastors.

But what about the gift of helping, that could help in a lot of areas, what about the gift of administration, we could always use more people to take on different projects, what about more people stepping up to teach so that we can have more classes.

We Put Those Gifts to Use

We need to start asking ourselves, what gift has God blessed me with and how can I use it to help God’s kingdom?

Someone I would like to use as an example here, just because I find a lot of encouragement when I look into this person of scripture is John the Baptist. Have you ever thought about the life of John.

This is a man, who recieved a message as a boy and centered his entire life around it? We don’t see any scripture that tells us that John saw any kind of miracles performed, He did live an exceptionally high end life, in fact he lived as a homeless person in the wilderness. All John’s mission was, was to tell people of the coming of Christ, and to prepare the way for him through his message and baptism.

and yet how did Christ describe him? Look at Matthew 11:11

Matthew 11:11 ESV

11 Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

He was just a man that did what he could with what God blessed him with, and he certainly didn’t seek his own advantage but rather he sought that of many.

You see if you have the Holy Spirit you have been given a gift, and you may or may not have figured out what that gift is, for those of you who have that’s great, USE IT!

But for those of you who haven’t figured it out yet, desire the gifts that can be most used here in the kingdom of God. We have 5 people here who have been baptized within the last 3 weeks, which is awesome and now having the Holy Spirit you will soon find that you have developed or further developed a gift that you can use to assist the body of Christ. That should be exciting.

Use Your Gift

Now here’s the part that truly bothers me, we have all recieved at least one gift, some of us have recieved more, but we have all recieved at least one gift that allows us to stand up and do the work of God. and yet we struggle at times to get volunteers, and their are all kinds of excuses that come across.

But we’re the body of Christ, this Church is the body of Christ and we should do everything we can to be a light to the world.

and really that doesn’t just apply to just the work you do here in this church building, but it’s about buying that person’s coffee for him, It’s about doing your work in a way that honors God, It’s about taking in that person that doesn’t have a place to stay.

How are you in God’s story, Often times we think about who God is in our story but who are we in God’s story?

When I think of God’s story often times I think about David and Goliath

(Story of David and Goliath)

(Who do you relate with)

You see we do have God the same way that David did but we don’t use it, we are content sitting in church partaking in church event but many don’t show any interest or commitment to actually take part in the work of God.

Close

These works of God don’t need to be miracles, all you need is simple faith. all you need to do is use what God has given you. What did David have? he didn’t have big muscles or a shiny sword even. He had courage and a slingshot, and he used what God gave him, and used it to serve God’s kingdom in a way that know else would.

I strongly encourage all of you to take time to think about what God has given you to take time to consider you spiritual gifts, and how you can use that gift to serve the kingdom of God.

Let’s pray.