Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

My Favorite Illustrations (One but Different)

Some neighbors were discussing the different outlooks people have.

Finally, one old man said, “Well, I am glad all people don’t see alike.

Because if they did, they would all want my Marthy.”

These neighbors were one in community but recognized their differences.

So it is to be in the body of Christ.

This is what we see in these last twenty verses of chapter twelve.

There are many members but ONE BODY.

We are all in community with each other and we are one.

I must reiterate what I said last week, If you hold to a certain view of the gifts different than me, that is okay.

I understand that we will believe differently but do not just react from emotion but let Scripture guide you.

Like I said about those who say that God told them so and so, I agree that the Lord will illumine Scripture through the Holy Spirit and you will get a Word from Him in that.

But if any word ever is against Scripture, then it is not of God.

One can have Scripture illumined for them and they believe deeply that God has spoken to them about giving to someone in need, starting a charity, serving the community, or that everything is going to be okay.

None of that is against Scripture.

It is fulfilling our role as believers actually.

But when someone says God told them they needed to buy a $25 million dollar G6 Jet, that is mighty suspicious.

It gets real suspicious when they say that we are to give him the money for this jet.

That is not Scriptural at all.

So, differences can be had within the body over what we believe the gifts are and how they work or if they even work still today.

But these are not essential doctrines for the growth of the body or salvation.

So, lets not allow them to make us divide.

Let us remember this old saying attributed to Philip Melanchthon In Essentials, unity.

In non-essentials, liberty.

In all things, charity.

We must believe this way because we are one body in Christ.

Which brings us to the first point in this text:

I. Unity (12-14)

Swindoll’s Ultimate Book of Illustrations & Quotes (Unity)

Few doctrines are more important than this one.

Because the church is under constant attack, we need to be good students of the subject.

Because we are fellow members of the body, we need to apply ourselves to mutual harmony.

And because disease can diminish the effectiveness of the body, we must maintain habits of health and a consistent program of exercise in harmony with God’s body-building program.

Yes, body building is of the utmost importance for the body of Christ.

We are one together.

Throughout this last section Paul uses the word “body” eighteen times in the ESV.

That is an important word for Paul in this section.

It is because he is focusing on the unity of the members of the body of Christ.

He not only uses “body” that many times but he uses the word “one” or a variation of it (single) ten times.

These emphasis and re-emphasis of these words demonstrates the desire of unity from Paul, but the spiritual unity that is the one body of believers.

Unity is that important.

It is crucial for proper function.

Without unity there is no proper function.

Even if we have differences, we need to be in unity with the main goal, people believing in Christ and then going and serving Him to the fullest.

Now, to look at the first three verses more closely.

The body analogy comes fully in view.

Paul says the body has many members but is still one.

Our natural body is many members but it is still one body.

This is what it is to be in Christ.

In verse 13 he says that it is the “One Spirit” that places us in the body.

All people of all ethnicities and backgrounds.

There are none higher or lower in this.

All become part of the body by the baptism of the Spirit.

This baptism is what happens when we believe in Christ for our salvation.

Commentator Mark Taylor wrote, “Paul’s emphasis on baptism into one body in one Spirit strongly emphasizes the unity of the body” (1 Corinthians, vol.

28, The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2014), 297.)

We see Paul speak of this baptism in Rom.

6:3 “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” and in Gal.

3:27 “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

Also the baptism that Christ spoke of in Matt.

3:11 ““I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” and Mark 1:8 “I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” and Luke 3:16 “John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” and Acts 1:5 “for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” and several more Scriptures.

Alan F. Johnson, a theologian, agrees that this baptism is at the moment we believe.

He states, “I would argue that baptism of the Spirit is the common experience of all Christians at the time that they receive Christ as Savior” (1 Corinthians, vol. 7, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Westmont, IL: IVP Academic, 2004) 231).

Indeed, when we believe we are baptized with the Spirit and become part of the body regardless of who we are or what we are.

We all become one with many members with many different functions.

Which leads to the next point which is the:

II.

Diversity of Gifts (15-20)

How weird would it be to have a foot for a hand and an eye for an ear.

We would be walking Halloween costumes if this were the case.

Paul makes it clear that it would be silly for the foot to say it is not part of the body because it is not a hand and an ear if it were not an eye.

Each part has a role.

We need eyes to see, ears to hear, feet to walk and have stability, and hands to grasp things.

These parts are where they are for good reasons.

If they are not, then a body has difficulties.

What Paul is alluding to with his statements of each part saying it does not belong because it is not another part is that each part has its own unique function.

Paul makes this clear when he wrote in 1 Cor.

12:17 “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?”

He makes even stronger emphasis of this in 1 Cor.

12:18 “But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.”

God has arranged each part of the body as it is for a specific reason.

There is not a part of the body that does not have a function and that function is exactly what it is supposed to do.

This is part of the sovereign design of our physical bodies and I believe the same is said for the body of Christ.

We see “The emphasis on “each one” and the placement of the members in the body according to God’s pleasure builds up the main point of 1 Cor.

12:4–11 that describes the manifestation of the Spirit “to each one” (12:7), the distribution of gifts “to one” and “to another” (12:8–10), and the allotment of gifts of the Spirit “just as he determines” (12:11).”

(Taylor, 298).

Paul is telling the Corinthians then and us now, that whatever it is you have been gifted with as a member of the body that is exactly what God has for you to do.

Do not be jealous or compare yourself to what another is doing or able to do.

Do what you are positioned to do and do it to the absolute best of your ability.

Do not forsake what you can do because you think being a foot is not being part of the body.

Carry the weight of that job.

Do not forsake what you are to do because you are not a hand.

Carry the load given you.

Many parts have hard jobs and other parts have what may be considered less than honorable, but all parts have a specific role and function and each part must be working in proper order for the whole to work correctly.

This now leads us to the final point:

III.