Alive!
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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.
For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 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. 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.” 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, 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 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.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
PRAYER
INTRO:
LAST WEEK
If you have ever watched a move about Frankenstein, you will notice that there is always an effort put in to make sure that you notice the stitching together that has been done. Putting together limbs and organs, into a kind of mishmash of a human, and a scientific experiment gone wrong.
And there is always a souless-ness to the creature.
Animated mechanically, but not by any sort of spirit.
That is the danger of any church that has been around for a while.
That it moves foward mechanically, obeying orders, but not with purpose or conviction; without spirit or soul.
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
So the church is not only animated by the Spirit of God, but as Paul writes elsewhere.....
“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
So unlike Frankenstein’s monster, the church, as the body of Christ, is animated by the spirit and mind of Christ.
BUT
And when it isn’t, ......it is simply on some level like Frankenstein’s monster, wandering aimlessly, searching for purpose.
The church in its most fundamental essence is nothing less than an interdependent, life-pulsating people who are indwelled by the presence of the resurrected and reigning Christ.
Anything other than that, the church is just a versions of Frankenstiens monster
The Church is.....
I. The Head Rules the Body (The Church)
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.
I
Each part does not have a will of its own
The body works when the parts of the body respond in oneness to the coordinating impulses of the head.
We know that when parts of our body stop working how they are supposed to the body is in trouble. It can be a small part but it is important to the function of the body.
Mom and Chuck
The church doesn’t exist to keep alive the memory of great man.....we are mystically in relationship with the resurrected Jesus and now he continues to reveal himself through his body the church!
________________
We all have a past. The Apostle Paul, the great missionary of the early church, author of much of our NT had a past. He was a Christian killer.
With the authority of the religious rulers, he would travel from town to town to rile up the crowd, make them angry and provide rocks for them to throw at Christians, until they were dead.
He was on his way to Damascus to snuff out the Christians there, when he saw a vision of Jesus.
In
And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
The is a mystical connection between Jesus and His church.
The body..
so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
Ephesians
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,
There is an intimacy in this metaphor, there is a deepness to it.
Pastor and author Ray Stedman said it this way....
“The Life of Jesus is still being manifest among people, but now no longer through an individual physical body, limited to one place on earth, but through a complex, corporate body called the church.”
Jesus continues his incarnation through his people.
It is a challenging and sobering thought: when we receive the Holy Spirit into our lives, we receive the same urgent and life-giving force that led the Master.
II. The Body Obeys the Head (Jesus)
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Not perfect vessels
But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
One writer describe the church as a container filled with the life of Jesus Christ
He not only indwells it, he intends to run it.
He is the head of the church
So the church as the body of Christ is not just an awesome thought it is a practical one.
The church works when each part listens to the head and functions accordingly.
When I sat down to talk with my surgeon about my knee operation- he asked me what I hoped to be able to do after my operation?
Your not 20---thanks doctor....I know that.
So soccer is probably out.
“Can you fix me to run in a straight line?
“Yeah, probably we can do that!”
Thanks.
Every time I run I feel it. I cannot run like I used to.
very time I run I feel it. I cannot run like I used to becasue the rest of my body is
I notice 2 things-----
i. My knee doesn’t have as much strength, it feels heavy. I notice it almost the entire time I run.
ii. I feel aches in other places because the rest of my body has to compensate for a knee that is not working like it should. It is not being a knee!!
That is practically what happens in a church when a body part is not working.
There is pain and strain.
For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 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. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
I Cor. 12:14-
The pain is felt and the strain is felt.
When I see the same people doing the same things for years, and no one else fills in the gaps.
There is pain in that area, and strain in other areas as they try to compensate.
I didn’t give my knee much thought before I injured it.
“Ain’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got til its gone.”
Some people who are part of the body think there part is of no of great importance. That they are not of great value to the body.
What is Paul saying?
That EVERY part of the body is important and has purpose and when we think we don’t we are in danger of seeing ourselves as and therefore living as dead weight.
excess and not needed.
And there are small shifts in the body, and soon we find ourselves limping as a body.
Paul says a healthy body, a healthy church cannot have parts that think too little of others OR too little of themselves
Scott Peck captures this idea in a story called the Rabbi’s Gift.
There was once a monastery that had fallen on hard times. It was once part of a great order which, as a result of religious persecution in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, had lost all its branches. It was decimated to the extent that there were only five monks left, the abbot and four others, all of whom were in their seventies.
Deep in the woods surrounding the monastery was a little hut that the rabbi from a nearby town used for a solitude. One day, it occured to the abbot to visit the hut to see if the rabbi could offer any advice that might save the monastery.
The rabbi welcomed the abbot and sat down with him.
“I know how it is,” he said, “the spirit has gone out of the people. Almost no-one comes to the synagogue anymore.”
So the old rabbi and the old abbot wept together. They read parts of the Torah and spoke quietly of deep things.
The time came when the abbot had to leave.
They embraced.
“It has been wonderful being with you,” said the abbot, “but I have failed in my purpose for coming. Have you no piece of advice that might save the monastery?”
“I am sorry,” the rabbi responded, “I have no advice to give except to tell you that the messiah is one of you.”
When the other monks heard the rabbi’s words, they wondered what possible significance they might have.
“The messiah is one of us? One of us here, at the monastery? Do you suppose he meant the abbot? Of course it must be the abbot, he has been our leader for so long. On the other hand, he might have meant brother Thomas, who is certainly a holy man. Or maybe he meant brother Elrod, who is very grumpy, but also very wise. I don’t think that he meant brother Phillip, he’s too passive, but then he always seems to be there when you need him. Of course, he didn’t mean me did he? Perhaps he did.”
As they contemplated the possibilities, the old monks began to treat each other and themselves with extraordinary respect, just in case one of them was the messiah.
Because the forest was so beautiful, people occasionally same to visit the monastery. They would have picnics or just wander along the old paths, most of which led to the dilapidated chapel. They sensed the extraordinary respect that surrounded the five old monks, permeating the atmosphere.
The visitors began to come more frequently, bringing their friends with them. Some of the younger men who came to visit, began to engage in conversations with the monks.
After a while, one of the men asked if he could join them. Then another, and another.
So, thanks to the rabbi’s gift, within a few years the monastery had once again become a thriving order and a vibrant centre of light and spirituality in the realm.
Now there are all sorts of theological issues with that story; but the idea of a gathering of people, who understand that when they gather together, on Sundays’ in a church building, or in homes that there is something sacred going on and that we are living as extensions of Jesus into each others lives.
Now there are all sorts of theological issues with that story; but the idea of a gathering of people, who understand that when they gather together, on Sundays’ in a church building, or in homes that there is something sacred going on and that we are living as extensions of Jesus into each others lives.
Then Jesus has control of his church.
Then the church is listening to the head of the church and is on mission.
So that as Jesus says, as you do unto
That P Peter 2.....
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
that is when that becomes a practical reality.
you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture:
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,
“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”
and
“A stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
It is when the mystery of being IN Christ and He in us is at work and from it.
We start to live out practically what we have already been declared to be.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
So we understand that the head of the church can only be Christ- who gave his life for her, brings us unity within,
We understand that the body ONLY functions when it lives, in unity, and obedience to Him.
PAUSE
Some have said that we are not a very good community here at the Port.
That people feel left out or unimportant.
And that hurts.
So at the Port Campus, we try to make sure there are ways to connect. The Table, Life Groups, ministering together, coffee after the service, other events...
But short of running a ministry where we assign for you people to have relationships with, that is not up to us.
It naturally results form a community, unified and seeking the best for the body, to have lunch together, and invest in each other for the benefit and health of the Body of Christ.
You say yes, but some people are a strain....yes, that builds muscle; it helps both of you grow into maturity in Christ.
The body
The Church is not a headless monster: Jesus is the head of the church,
The Church responds with and in unity, and lastly we need to be aware of what slows or stop healthy church
III. A Disobedient Body Cannot Grow
And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
Parts only grow in relation to other parts
A hand disconnected from the wrist is useless.
Part of what Paul is dealing with in the Church in Corinth is a group of people who are saying they do not need each other.
They can grow and flourish on their own.
For the body does not consist of one member but of many.
He points out that there are certain attitudes that stunt growth.
They are like
A kind of devaluing of ourselves and others.
a. inferiority (vv.15-16)
If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.
For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.
some remove themselves from the body because they see themselves as somehow less than others. That is not the story of the Gospel.
Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
So whatever categories live out there. Whatever hierarchies exist out there whether they be ethnic, economic, social, they have no place in here!!
by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
God has created something new!
Now even Christian leadera of the past have been misguided here and have been the reason for such feelings of inferiority
“A Christian preacher is a minister of God who is set apart, yea, he is an angel of God, a very bishop sent by God, a saviour of many people, a king and a prince in the Kingdom of Christ, and among the people of God, a teacher, a light of the world. There is nothing more precious or nobler on earth and in this life than a true, faithful parson or preacher.”
Martin Luther
by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
But that is an extremely misguided view.
The ground is even at the foot of the cross.
God has created something new!
b. Superiority (v. 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.”
One of the defining characteristics of modern culture is freedom.
But it is not a freedom toward something it is a freedom from everything.
individuals used to be praised for giving up self for the community, now we are praised for being set apart from community; standing out, creating our own uniqueness.
It’s me not we.
Two generations ago, Life Magazine was the most popular magazine.
Then we moved from Life to People
From People Magazine we went to Us
Then we went from us to Self
Soon it will “Me”.
A magazine of mirrors; were we can look and say....I like that!
The church is meant to live a glaring opposition to that.
And the church cannot be built, grow, function, if we think that our well-being is the goal.
c. Another Option: Submission
mutually to Christ and to each other
Romans 12
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
Think of others as greater than yourself.
But they did this!
Ephesians
I have been a Christian so long. They are young in their faith.
News for you....we are all young in our faith!!
WE are not submitting because of what someone has accomplished anyway.
We are not inferior, we are not superior, and we show submission to each other....because our status is caught up in Jesus!!
submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ means unity, it means we are reminded everytime we gather and see that we are different, we are reminded of the way the Gospel breaks down barriers.
There is no job to big for the
There are some people here, who you never thought you would share a room with, sing with, smile at, and laugh with. And they are thinking the same thing.
Yet here we are.
But the cross of Jesus and the love of God has broken barriers.
It always has.
So that .......
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.
The church in its most fundamental essence is nothing less than an interdependent, life-pulsating people who are indwelled by the presence of the resurrected and reigning Christ.
Throughout this series we are inviting you to see yourselves not as those who attend church, but those who are church.
That you do not only know Jesus, you are an extension of Him into your community
What I want to see, and what I prayer for for myself and this church, is that we will not be so comfortable that when the Sprit of God passes by we don’t even look up to see Him.
We have no space left in our busy lives to embrace him.
Submission is difficult. It is countercultural.
But we have one head of the church, that is Jesus. We have one mission of the church and it is that we exist for His glory.
Anything else might be community, but its not the church.
So let’s bow our heads and lets invite the Spirit of God to speak to us this morning.