The Body

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1 Corinthians  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  46:23
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Today, as we are gearing up for the restart of our ministries for the Fall, I wanted to take some time to remind us all of our Vision and Mission.
What is our Vision. Our vision tells us what we are looking to achieve. Our vision comes right out of Colossians 1:28.
Colossians 1:28 NIV
He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.
The vision is that we will be presenting everyone fully mature in Christ!
The scriptures use the imagery of being born for salvation. The moment we receive salvation by grace through faith, we are born again. We are like spiritual babies. Then, scripture uses the imagery of us needing to grow and mature, just as babies need to grow up and mature.
My desire is for us as a church to be able to present to the Lord, at His coming, everyone that He has brought our way to Him as mature in Him. Being more like Christ.
To fulfill this vision we need to be proclaiming Christ. That means that we are telling others about Him. We are teaching people who He is, what He has done and is doing. What He is like. What he expects of us. We are taking time to admonish as needed. To remind, to put into their mind the truth as revealed in scripture.
This really is the mission then. The mission is what we must do to bring about the vision.
The mission can be found in Colossians 1:28, and it is also seen in Christ’s commission.
Matthew 28:18–20 NIV
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
In order to present people as mature in Christ, we must be going and making disciples. We need to be sharing the hope of Christ with the lost world. Then, we need to baptize those who believe, and teach them all that Christ commanded.
Notice, in both of these passages, there is a lot of teaching.
We know that for people to grow and mature there needs to be a lot of teaching. There is a lot to learn for us to be mature: knowing and doing what is right.
This vision of presenting people as mature, and mission of making disciples and teaching them is why we do what we do here at EFBC.
We have outreach events like Super Summer Slam, the Thanksgiving Baskets, Christmas Baskets, Outreach Dinners, and Trunk or Treat in order to create opportunities for us as a church family to work together and reach out to the lost in our community with the hope of the gospel. We encourage everyone to use the Pocket Testament Gospel of John to share the gospel with people around us. All of this to make disciples. To see people come to Christ.
Then, we have Sunday School, the Sunday message, Small Groups, Kids Club, Ladies’ and Men’s Bible Studies, Tyndale, and Youth Group to provide teaching opportunities. We want to teach everyone so that we can all be growing to maturity.
However, with all of these activities, Keep in mind what Paul said in Colossians 1:28.
Colossians 1:28 NIV
He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.
Did you notice that Paul said, “we proclaim, admonish and teach?”
It takes more than just Keith and Micah and I to do the proclamation, admonishing and teaching. It takes, well, as Paul told the Corinthians, The Body.
We have been studying through 1 Corinthians over the past several weeks. Currently, we are taking some time to look at how to handle disputes properly, something we saw that the church in Corinth was not doing. In fact, we have seen that the church in Corinth had a number of issues, all of which seemed to stem from divisions among them due to self-centeredness and pride.
But even though Paul had a lot of corrective admonishing and teaching to do, he also, through the Spirit gave them, and us, good encouragement and direction.
Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 1, a passage we already looked at when we first started studying this book.
1 Corinthians 1:1–7 NIV
Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.
Sanctified - set apart by God for His work
Called to be Holy - distinct from the people of the world
Under Christ our Lord
Enriched in every way
Not lacking any spiritual gift
Paul expands upon this in 1 Corinthians 12.
1 Corinthians 12:4–6 NIV
There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
Gifts from the Spirit
1 Corinthians 12:7 NIV
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
1 Corinthians 12:12–27 NIV
Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

The Body

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