A Part of the Whole

Good morning, welcome to New Horizon Christian Church, please open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 12.

Beginning a new sermon series that I don’t really know how it’s going to go!

We will get through this morning and then evaluate where to turn in our one remaining week.

Discussing covenant membership at New Horizon, becoming a covenant member of the church body here.

Begin with a beautiful vision of what the church is.

Read 1 Corinthians 12:12–31.

A few quick observations about the text.

Paul writes this letter to the young church in Corinth who were figuring out their lives as followers of Jesus and their roles in relation to one another.

If you’ve spent much time in 1 Corinthians, you probably know some of the struggles of this particular church- unity and division, church discipline, love and care for one another.

Chapters 12-14 are likely a response from Paul to a question that had been asked of him by the church at Corinth concerning spiritual gifts, specifically speaking in tongues.

Division caused by the various gifts of the Holy Spirit- so Paul responded by highlighting unity, service toward one another, and mutual love and affection.

While there is a diversity of gifts, they are meant to be unified in their use of their gifts, not to puff themselves up, but instead to make Christ known.

Paul illustrates all of this through the imagery that would be easily understood- the body.

Refers to the church there in Corinth as the body of Jesus with Christ as the head.

One important point to make- in his illustration, Paul is referring not to the global church, but instead to the local congregation at Corinth.

When Paul describes love in 1 Corinthians 13, he is speaking of the love that these believers are meant to have for one another- not for the global church and people with whom they would never interact.

So Paul speaks to a local church problem with a local church solution.

Common misconceptions among Christians concerning life in local church family.

Not speaking here in generalities of how people likely view the church, but instead, these are six ways of thinking that can find their way into our ideas about the church today, in Heyworth.

These are probably thoughts that you have had, and they are thoughts that I have had as well.

So how might we think about life in the local church, and how does Paul challenge and correct our thinking in 1 Corinthians 12?

1. I belong to myself.

What I do involves and matters only to me.

My salvation is a personal salvation, a personal relationship with God, and there is nothing more to it.

1 Corinthians 12:24b–26- “...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 the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”

Notice the language that is used.

No division- In order to truly believe that you belong to yourself, and that you are responsible only for yourself, you must demand a division.

An athlete who believes that they are solely responsible for their own efforts.

Same care for one another- Every member of the body caring for everyone else.

How does this play out? One suffers, everyone suffers. One is honored, everyone is honored.

Ephesians 4:25- “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”

In a highly individualized societal context, we in the church are reminded that faith is not meant to be lived privately or alone. We are members one of another.

2. Church is a spectator sport.

My experience of being a part of the local, gathered church is entirely what I can gain from it for my own benefit on Sunday mornings.

V. 14-20- Paul utilizes the language of body parts. Why?

To show their usefulness.

When Paul mentions a hand, we don’t merely picture a hand, but a hand doing something. The same is true for an eye, or a foot, or an ear.

These body parts are not merely present, but are useful in accomplishing something.

The ear hears, the foot walks, the eye sees, the hand grabs.

Notice that Paul is describing the various people of the church at Corinth by describing them as body parts. He is highlighting or emphasizing their usefulness to a cause.

Reminded that our presence alone is not what God expects from His people.

We are meant to use our spiritual gifts, the way that God equips us for this life, in service of one another toward the end of making Jesus known among ourselves and out in a lost world.

3. We’ve got to figure this whole thing out.

In order to grow my own faith, to build up the body of Christ, and to reach the lost, we must put our heads together to think of some new and effective method.

This is all in our hands.

This gets particularly dangerous when we begin to define ministry according to our own terms, leanings and likings.

This makes sense to me, this is what I like to do, this would be effective to me, so let’s minister in this way, with my ideas at the core.

1 Corinthians 12:17–18- “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.”

There is a real sense of the sovereignty of God when it comes to the life and activity of the local church.

God has given the gifts as He has chosen.

God has arranged them in the body as He has chosen.

What is the point here? God defines the ministry.

We don’t need to figure out life and ministry on our own, because God has already laid it all out for us.

We sometimes like to complicate ministry, complicate faith, complicate life.

We must be very careful when it comes to innovation.

Andrew Wilson quote.

4. The work of the church is unimportant and changes nothing.

Either the world is too broken or the church is too broken to make any real difference in my life or the lives of those around me.

The local church is insignificant when it comes to real change in this world, in this community, and in this life of mine.

1 Corinthians 12:27- “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”

In stark contrast, Paul describes the church at Corinth, a rather sinful church at that, as the body of Jesus.

We can hopefully imagine this. Christ is our head, our knowledge and understanding. In all things we seek to know Christ and to know Him crucified.

But the Church is the body of Jesus, the hands, the feet, the heart, the eyes, the ears. The ministry of Jesus is carried out through the Church.

Before we begin thinking about this on too grand of a scale, Paul is writing to the local church. He’s writing to a community of believers like those in Heyworth.

Makes clear that the way Jesus is going to deal with the problems surrounding us (depression, loneliness, disease, death, poverty, divorce, addiction) is with the various giftings of those in the church who have committed themselves to one another to be the body of Jesus.

Think of this on the level of life in high school.

Do we trust in the promises of Jesus and the strength of the Spirit?

5. I don’t need to belong to a church family.

I can do my life and faith on my own.

The most important aspects of my life and my relationship with Jesus can best be formed and shaped in the seclusion and privacy of my own efforts.

1 Corinthians 12:21- “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.’”

Stated simply, we need each other. A solo faith is hardly a biblical faith.

Kim Riddlebarger- “…there is no biblical justification whatsoever for the widespread tendency among evangelicals to confess that ‘Jesus is their Lord,’ but then fail to participate in the life of the church by joining a particular congregation. To put it another way, ‘unchurched Christian’ is truly an oxymoron.”

Notice the language from Riddlebarger- participate in the life of the church. Again, the organs that are being mentioned by Paul have purpose. The eye sees the need for the usefulness of the hand. The same with the feet.

There is a certain arrogance that comes with the mindset that says I don’t need the church. The assumption is that I possess all of the necessary gifts for the life of faith.

Even worse, such a mindset rejects biblical wisdom.

The biblical authors, in the wisdom of God’s Spirit, time and time again speak of our need for the community and fellowship of the Church.

Again, God’s purposes are accomplished through His gathered people. We are created and re-created to belong to God’s people in our own local context.

6. I don’t matter/You don’t matter.

What I do as a covenant member of the church will make no difference. Others are more equipped than I am to further the work of God in this world.

I am less important than others.

1 Corinthians 12:21–23- “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.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty.”

One of the reasons I love this text is that it digs deep into the heart of man.

We typically see ourselves in relation to others in one of two extremes- I am not good enough, or you are not good enough.

Paul destroys both. We cannot say that we have no need for others, and we also cannot say that they have no need for us.

All of this combines to illustrate a beautiful picture of what the church is, and what you and I are meant to be a part of.

Diversity of people, backgrounds, relationships, passions, gifts with one common goal- making Jesus Christ known among us and in the world.

This does not happen without making commitments to each other.